Hackers have just released the second version of the Skulls program in conjunction with variant B of the mobile phone virus, announced in June 2004.
Security company F-Secure (Finland) said the hybrid Skulls.B hybrid also displays skulls instead of icon icons on handsets running the Symbian operating system.
Phone infection with Skulls.B can make Cabir worms spread to neighboring devices. However, this Trojan can only penetrate the download path and not spread by using Cabir as a transit tool. Skulls was originally released from the Symbian software-sharing website as a management application called & quot; Extended Theme Manager & quot ;. Cabir is considered a proven program for mobile viruses. It disperses by sending a copy to the handset in the shortwave Bluetooth range. When infected with Cabir, the phone will display the word "Caribe" on the screen while the virus will modify the operating system and search for other phone targets.
F-Secure says Nokia, Siemens, Panasonic and Sendo mobile phones are at risk of being attacked by Skulls. Previously, Symbian said that the Trojan only affects devices using Nokia Series 60 software. Skulls' research director, Mikko Hypponen, is just a minor risk at this point, but it also shows that hackers are increasingly inclined to take handheld communications devices as targets for attack and These programs are the first exploratory steps.
Hypponen argues that it is not just the creation of a futuristic mobile device virus model, but the presence of Skulls also demonstrates the fact that phones are more vulnerable to attack than other devices due to their cohesion. Direct sales and transaction processing systems.
"The biggest difference between a computer virus and a phone virus is a direct connection to money," Finnish security experts say. "If a virus is introduced into the device, the hacker will be able to immediately initiate a call and send the message to the toll-free number, which will cost the victim an unfair advantage. This kind of stealing happens much faster than on a PC. "
