Skulls on cell phones don't scare Symbian

Symbian is questioning whether the Skulls program that disrupts some cell phones running its software is actually malicious. The mobile operating system developer said on Monday that the Trojan horse, which breaks links to applications and replaces display icons with images of skulls, could be legitimate. "There's no accounting for people's tastes on the Internet," a company representative said.

Symbian said that it is investigating the matter. It is collaborating with security company F-Secure on a fix for the problem.

Dan Ilett of ZDNet UK reported from London. For the full story, click here.

[aldsimworks]

Skulls trojan is definitely malware

I'm sufficiently surprised by Symbian's public stance in relation to the Skulls trojan to wonder if they haven't been misquoted. To claim that the application may not be malware at all is not credible in light of the analysis of the files installed on phones undertaken by ourselves (SimWorks Anti-Virus) and other anti-virus companies.

The author of the skulls trojan has embedded numerous messages including an invitation to send him/her a copy of the Cabir virus (presumably to learn how to spread files via Bluetooth), a warning that further versions of the application will be released and a number of short sometimes contradictory statements such as "Why do T-VIRUS created? Cuz i love you so much :)" and "Why do T-VIRUS belongs in this world? Cuz i hate you very much :)".

It's difficult to think of a legitimate reason to develop an application to effectively disable all of the icons on a persons phone. Further, if the Skulls trojan (or T-VIRUS as its author calls it) is not malware why would the author include the statements the he/she does?

We were also interested in the statement that Symbian and F-Secure are working to fix the problem. Symbian should have spoken to us, there is no need to wait for them to fix the problem as SimWorks Anti-Virus for Symbian phones already protects against and repairs the damage caused by the Skulls trojan.

Best regards,
Aaron Davidson.

SimWorks International Limited
http://www.simworks.biz