More on MMS virus "Commwarrior"

The first mobile phone virus capable of rifling through a phonebook and automatically sending a copy of itself to uninfected phones was discovered by anti-virus researchers on Monday. [New Scientist]

Commwarrior has no malicious payload but it spreads more insidiously than any phone virus to date because it appears to come from a friend and can spread over long distances, say researchers at the Finnish security firm F-Secure in Helsinki.

It packages itself in a file and sends itself via a type of enhanced text message service called MMS. "This is the first time we have seen a spreading mechanism like this," says Matias Impivaara of F-Secure. "It is clearly more efficient."

Previous phone viruses such as Skulls and Mosquito have had no way to spread from phone to phone and relied on being downloaded from a website, while Cabir spread via Bluetooth, only to phones within a 10 metre radius. Commwarrior can spread between phones anywhere in the world.

Related articles:

-- Experts Say Russians Created First Ever Mobile Phone Virus - The first indications suggested the virus originated in Russia.

-- Antivirus Companies Report First Mobile Messaging Worm -The first mobile-phone virus that spreads using the popular MMS is circulating among Symbian Series 60 mobile phones.

emily | 9:10 AM | Spam, Viruses and Hoaxes |
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