13 Dec 2004
Three new variants of Cabir smartphone virus discovered
 |
| The Cabir worms only work on mobile phones
running the Symbian operating system. However, there are no reports
of anyone being infected. |
But low threat to mobile phone users as no sightings of worm
reported
Sophos virus experts have advised customers not to panic,
following the discovery of three new variants of the Cabir virus
which attempt to infect mobile phones. The new versions of the
virus have been made available for download on a Malaysian website
dedicated to sharing mobile phone applications.
The Cabir worms attempt to spread via Bluetooth to other
compatible mobile smartphones in their vicinity, but recipients
have to confirm they wish to receive the worm before it can infect
them.
Sophos advises cell phone users that they can protect themselves
against many types of Bluetooth threats by turning off the "visible
to others" Bluetooth setting in their phones. This protects against
being sent unwanted malicious programs.
"Although malware written specifically for mobiles tends to make
the headlines, it hasn't so far resulted in any outbreaks," said
Graham Cluley,
senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Users should not be
fooled into thinking the virus writers are focusing their attention
away from the main battelfield - regular Windows-based desktop
PCs."
Sophos issued detection of the Symb/Cabir-C, Symb/Cabir-D and Symb/Cabir-E worms at
21:33 GMT on 10 December.
About Sophos
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.