Symbian popularity sparks first smartphone trojan

Security vendor Kaspersky has detected rapid growth of what it claims is the first smartphone trojan to target the Symbian operating system.

Known as Trojan.SymbOS.Skuller.gen', it came in at ninth position on Kaspersky's Online Scanner Top Twenty chart for June.

It is one of the oldest trojans to target the Symbian OS system, working by replacing all file icons with skulls. It has grown widely thanks to the success of the Symbian platform and the exponential growth of smartphones.

It will also be cause for concern for many developers, especially as last month it was revealed that Nokia had purchased Symbian completely, with a view to making the platform open source.

David Emms, a senior technology consultant at Kaspersky Lab stated that although 10,000 mobile devices are reported to be stolen each month by the Metropolitan Police, they didn't actually have to be physically stolen to be the subject of theft.

"In most cases the data held on smartphones is worth far more than the device itself," he said. "For this reason the level of protection you put in place should be as high as the level of protection you would put in place on your laptop or PC."

Thanks to the upcoming launch of the business-friendly 3G iPhone and the popularity of business-focussed smartphones from the likes of Nokia, more attention is being paid to mobile phone security to ensure such devices can connect to corporate networks securely and safely.

IT PRO recently published tips of what IT administrators needed to look out for when incorporating smartphones into the network.