New Trojan Horse Program on Symbian Systems From Illegal Ver

[Barry]

If your mobile phone is running the Symbian operating system, you could be vulnerable to a new Trojan horse program, contained in an illegal version of the game Mosquitos.

The pirated game, dubbed Mosquitos v2.0, can be found on 'warez' Web sites (illegal software download sites) and on peer-to-peer (P-2-P) networks, according to Symbian representatives. They say that during game play, the Trojan may cause the phone to send text messages to premium rate numbers in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, without the user's knowledge.


The cracked Mosquitos game runs only on phones using the Series 60 User Interface platform. After the game is loaded, the startup screen--which most users tend to breeze past without reading--clearly notes that the affected version of Mosquitos "has been cracked by Soddom Bin Loader."


Users can remove the Trojan simply by uninstalling the game, says Symbian. The company also says phones that use the UIQ user interface platform will be unaffected by the Trojan.

New virus threats to mobile devices are prompting users to take greater care when downloading software and surfing wireless networks. Although malicious code was eventually going to make its way to wireless devices, consumers tend to shy away from the inevitable until they are infected themselves. It would be best to start protecting your wireless phones/pda's today from malicious ware.



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[Barry]

Security experts have quashed reports that a pirated mobile videogame was host to the world's first malicious mobile phone virus, after it emerged that the supposed 'Trojan horse' component was originally inserted as a copy protection measure by the game's developer.

According to reports on August 15th, a pirated version of the game Mosquitos found on file-sharing networks and download sites would install a program that sent out unauthorised SMS text messages while the game was running.

Initial reports suggested that the malicious code in the game, which runs on the Symbian Series 60 operating system (used by mobile phones including the N-Gage), would send the text messages to a premium rate number - and had been added by the programmers who cracked the software.

However, according to anti-virus researcher F-Secure, the Trojan element was originally inserted by the developer in an effort to alert them to unlicensed copies. The idea was that the program would send a message alerting the developer to the use of unlicensed software. The service has since been shut down due to complaints, and text messages to the number are no longer charged at premium rates.

"It did not work the way it was supposed to; they had complaints and removed it from the game," F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen told the BBC News website. In its advisory on the subject, F-Secure said: "This functionality was intended to be a copy-protecting technique - it didn't work as planned and the whole functionality backfired."

"The premium rate contracts for the phone numbers have been terminated, so although old versions of the game still send hidden SMS messages, it only costs the nominal fee of sending the message itself. Current versions of this game no longer have this hidden functionality, but 'cracked' versions of Mosquitos still float in P2P network - and they still send these messages."
F-Secure advised mobile phone users only to download their software from authorised vendors.

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