Suspected mobile virus writer arrested in Spain

The 28-year-old was arrested in Valencia following a seven month investigation by the Spanish authorities.

The man is accused of writing and distributing over 20 different versions of the Cabir and Commwarrior worms, which attempt to infect mobile phones running the Symbian operating system.

As many as 115,000 mobile phones may have been struck by the malware, according to Spanish police.

quot;Mobile phone viruses are not nearly as common as the malware that strikes Windows desktops on a regular basis, but they are just as illegal in their intent,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.

“Viruses are not harmless pranks; they cause real harm disrupting business and personal communications as well as destroying and stealing sensitive data.

The computer crime authorities around the globe are becoming more experienced at tracking down hackers and virus writers, and given this latest arrest, malware authors should be asking themselves whether it's really worth taking the risk."


Earlier this year, a survey conducted by Sophos revealed that 81 percent of IT administrators said that they were concerned that malware and spyware were targeting mobile devices and will become a significant threat in the future.

However, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) admitted that they have no solution in place to secure company phones and PDAs.

arrestedinmobilesecurityspainsuspectedviruswriter