Warnings made to smartphone users over Sexy View worm

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure claimed that like the Koobface virus, Sexy View is a social engineering virus that uses the contacts stored on a smartphone to spread. It sends a text message to the contacts on the phone, telling them to check out some hot pictures and offers a link to a website.

The recipient will then follow the URL, due to it coming from a familar source, and will be asked to install an application, which sends the worm to all their contacts.

Hypponen, said: “Sexy View is important in many ways. It is the first text message worm ever. It's also the first mobile phone worm that circumvents the signature checks that are meant to secure the latest smartphones.

“The motive behind it seems to be to collect information for mobile phone spamming purposes. Mobile phone spam is already a big problem in some parts of the world – eventually it will be an issue everywhere.”

See original article on scmagazineuk.com