First Symbian OS Trojan Discovered in the Wild

[Colin Dunstan]

Airscanner Research Labs has discovered the first "in the wild" dialer trojan infecting Symbian OS-based cell phones: the Mosquito dialer Trojan.

A dialer Trojan is malware coded to secretly dial phone numbers, leaving the infected victim with a large phone bill. The game that the infected users had installed was called Mosquito v2.0. The game is unique in that it uses the phone's built-in camera. The user walks around shooting mosquitoes in a virtual reality–like atmosphere. This game appeared to be a "cracked" version that appeared on the many cell phone warez and p2p networks that plague the Internet underground. It appeared that 87140 was a UK number costing a hefty £1.50 per text message.

Although the Mosquito Trojan is more of an annoyance than a real threat, it demonstrates that cell phone malware is a growing problem. As we've seen, the 911 virus in Tokyo knocked out the city's public emergency services number. With a growing variety of malware attacking a growing number of mobile devices, future attacks could be worse.