Mobile phones: An ear full of worms

In August, smart phones were attacked by another Trojan horse, Mosquito, which hides in a game by the same name. Once installed, the game causes phones to send text messages via SMS (Short Message Service) to premium rate numbers in several European countries without the user's approval or knowledge.

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And in November, mobile phone viruses surfaced once again, with two related Trojan programs. The first, Skulls.A, deactivates all links to Symbian system applications, such as e-mail and calendar, by replacing their menu icons with images of skulls. Users of affected phones can only send or receive calls.

The more recent strain, Skulls.B, includes the Cabir.B worm and, unlike the first version of the Trojan, can spread to other phones within Bluetooth range. Skulls.B is otherwise similar to its predecessor, using Symbian default icons, which look like jigsaw puzzle pieces, instead of skulls to render applications unusable.

Even if these viruses are few in number, what worries the mobile phone industry is that they're happening -- and with increased frequency.

"We aren't panicking; we're still at a stage where there aren't enough platforms out there for viruses to spread easily," said Steve Babbage, security director at Vodafone Group. "But that won't protect us for long."

Vodafone, Europe's largest mobile operator, has reason to be concerned. The operator is one of many now offering 3G (third-generation) high-speed service to users equipped with smart phones. Most European operators, including Vodafone, paid exhorbitant prices for 3G licenses. Understandably, the last thing they want is for a swarm of viruses to undermine that investment.

Enterprise customers are becoming concerned about mobile viruses, too, but they're far from paranoid. "We're only now beginning to see some mobile viruses, and these are quickly being hyped by vendors of antivirus software," said the IT security director of a Blue Chip European consumer goods company with more than 200,000 employees worldwide. "There is still a bit of a wait-and-see attitude at our company, but this could change quickly if we ever get hit by a virus. And then, of course, it's too late."

The door to mobile viruses was opened when phone makers, led by Nokia, the world's largest phone maker, decided a couple of years ago to open their platforms to third-party software developers and encourage them to develop applications for new smart phones. The decision was prompted in large part by the industry's push beyond pure telephony into mobile data services, requiring the expertise of developers trained in PC applications.

"We are very interested in promoting third-party applications to create greater choice for users," said Eero Kukko, marketing manager of technology platforms at Nokia, which is giving developers more architecture guidance and access to design libraries and APIs (application programming interfaces). "At the same time, we're enabling developers to develop security software to protect these applications."

Antivirus companies applaud the move.