Security news
Security news8 November 2004
Spammers use Trojan horse to send SMS spam to mobile phone users, Sophos reports
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| Spammers are using a Trojan horse to send junk SMS messages to mobile phone users. |
Anti-virus experts at Sophos have identified a new Trojan horse which attempts to send spam messages to mobile phone users.
The Troj/Delf-HA Trojan horse downloads instructions on which spam campaign to run from a Russian website, and can plague owners of cellphones by sending them unsolicited junk SMS text messages.
The Trojan horse sends spam SMS messages by using the "Send a text message" facility found on the websites of several Russian mobile phone network providers.
"Cellphone spam can not only be a nuisance, but it can also cost the phone owner money. In the past we have seen SMS spam campaigns designed to encourage recipients to ring an expensive phone number, or sign-up for a costly chatline service," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Now SMS spammers are taking a leaf out of the book of email spammers, and using unprotected innocent PCs to pass on their unwanted messages."
Although only a small number of instances of the Trojan horse have been sighted so far, Sophos recommends companies protect their email gateways with a consolidated solution to thwart the virus and spam threats as well as secure their desktop and servers with automatically updated anti-virus protection.
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