:::M-Internet360:::

Mobile Spam on the rise

Definition of Mobile Spam:

Mobile Spam is to a mobile handset what email spam is to an e-mailbox.
It is defined as unsolicited commercial messages, which

• try to sell something to the user or
• ask the user to call a phone number, which may be a premium-rate service or
• destroy or change handset settings or
• are simply messages of a commercial nature that are considered threatening, or intruding upon a user's privacy.

80% of mobile phone users surveyed by University of St. Gallen, Switzerland and bmw wireless said tey have received unsolicited text messages (mobile spam). The survey forms part of a report -- "Insights into Mobile Spam, World's First Collaborative Empirical Study" -- on the growing problem of mobile spam.  Click here for a look at the Table of Contents of the report.

Related:

: Techworthy on SMS Spam Filtering Solutions

: Trojan virus targets handsets with SMS spam

: Mobiletracker: "Mobile Spam spreads"

: CNN: "Spam invasion targets mobile phones"

: New measures launched by O2 Ireland to block m-spam

: Mobile operators in the UK apply content controls

Explosion of SMS spam in Korea

Korean cell phone subscribers are bombared with SMS spam with 870,000 cases reported to the Korea Information Security Agency (KISA).

In an attempt to crack down on spammers, a new law will take effect in Korea from April, banning the transmission of advertisement SMS messages without prior consent. Under the new law, anyone sending spam without having obtained the necessary consent will be fined up to 30 million Korean Won (equivalent to approximately $28,900).

Korean cell phone users may be encouraged to know that in March 2004 Australia's Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman reported that its code of conduct aimed at preventing SMS spam had been highly effective.

Mobile Malware News

: Lasco worm written by a Brazilian becomes the first to target the Symbian Installation System (SIS) files. The worm is based on the same code as Cabir, the first mobile phone virus. Infected phones spread the worm via Bluetooth and transmit the code to the first Symbian Series 60 device available in its broadcast radius. More here, here and here. More information regarding this new threat as well as removal procedures can be found at the Symantec and F-Secure website.

: Skulls Trojan affecting the Symbian Series 60 phones

: Brief history of Mobile Malware - Interesting article on the history of Trojans and viruses that have infected handhelds and smart phones over the last 6 months. A few snippets:

December 2004

- New variants of the Cabir virus (one of the first mobile viruses), Cabir.H and Cabir.I, fixed a flaw that slowed the previous Cabir malware from spreading rapidly. The original Cabir, dubbed Cabir.A, moved only to one new phone with each reboot. But the newer versions did not have the same restrictions, and appeared capable of spreading to an unlimited number of phones per reboot.
(For more, see New Cabir Variants are Spreading Fast)

- METAL Gear.a encouraged smartphone users to install itself by masquerading as the Symbian version of the popular Metal Gear Solid game. The trojan was the first malware to target Symbian security software to disable specific anti-virus and file browsing applications.
(For more see Trojan Targets Anti-Virus Achilles Heel)

November 2004 

- Skulls, a relatively low-impact but threatening virus, popped up on some Symbian OS smartphones. The malware, which overwrote application information and icon files (AIF) on the device's C: drive with an icon of a skull-and-bones image, was found at some Symbian shareware download sites under the filename "Extended Theme Manager" and "Tee-222" with a Symbian OS Installer file (.sis).

(See Security Update: Skulls Hit Symbian Phones)

August 2004 

- The first Trojan aimed at Symbian smartphones turned up embedded in a cracked (illegal) edition of Ojom’s game Mosquito. So the only way to become infected with Mosquito was to to knowingly or unwittingly download illegal software.

Mosquito became activated when you launched the pirated game. Upon which, it copied itself to the system/apps/Mosquitos/ folder on the smartphone and then sent SMS messages out in the background at premium rates while the game was being played.
(For more, see Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts)

: T-Mobile USA network gets hacked

: Malware markets are getting formalized with virus writers creating viruses for money rather than fun.

F-Secure Weblog

Interesting anti-virus blog from F-Secure Research Team.  The company has a AV product for Series 60 platform.  A recent entry from the blog:

Today we also got another sample which contains two new Symbian malwares. MGDropper is a malicious file distributed as Metal Gear.SIS. It disables file managers and Anti-Virus programs (but fails to disable F-Secure Mobile Anti-Virus).

This thing also installs Cabir.G. Unlike Skulls trojans, MGDropper disables only the phone application installer, not all built in applications.

This thing is detected with Generic detection by F-Secure Mobile Anti-Virus.

SK Telecom launches anti-virus service

SK Telecom subscribers can download an AV software - V3Mobile vaccine service on their WIPI enabled phones. The V3Mobile vaccine program enables users to check for a virus in their cellular phones, and detect any virus during real-time download whilst accessing the Internet.

It also offers the basic vaccine functions that are provided by conventional PCs. These include a vaccine engine update function as well as a virus check-up record management function. Moreover, this program furnishes a virus reporting function that lets users directly request the analysis of files in mobile terminals that might be infected by a virus. The effort was a joint collaborative effort with Korean computer security solution developers AhnLab ub-ware and AhnLab. Click here and here for more information.