Hello, hello. It's me, the Beselo worm calling, and, man, do I have a new trick for your Symbian-based phone.
But security researchers are advising users of the Symbian S60 second-edition phones to just hang up.
(Credit:
F-Secure)
The Beselo.A and Beselo.B worms are in the wild, looking to lure Symbian S60 users into clicking on their incoming malicious files, according to a warning issued Tuesday by F-Secure.
The Beselo worms are tricky, in that they use common media file extensions, rather than a standard SIS extension, in sending their malicious payload.
Like the Commwarrior worms, the Beselo worms rely on MMS and Bluetooth to get around, with some social engineering thrown in to trick users into installing the SIS application installation file. But because this file has a common media file extension, such as beauty.jpg, sex.mp3, or love.rm, users are more likely to click "yes" to an installation prompt when opening the file, notes F-Secure.
F-Secure offers this word of advice: just say "no" to such a request.
"There is no reason for any image file to ask installation questions on the Symbian platform, so any image or sound file that does something else than play immediately is without question something else than it claims to be," warns F-Secure.
That's the latest twist on smart-phone worms, which debuted in 2004 with the arrival of the Cabir worm. The Beselo worms, meanwhile, were initially clumped in with the pervasive Commwarrior worms, until a discovery was made about their use of common media file extensions.
The Symbian SlingPlayer has hit version 1.0.
(Credit: Sling Media)
The SlingPlayer for Symbian S60 phones is out of beta and now available for sale. The software allows a selection of Nokia phones (the E65, N75, and N95 in the U.S., and the E65, N73, and 6120 elsewhere) to stream TV from the full range of Slingbox models. Previously, the Symbian software was only available pre-installed on models sold by British wireless provider 3. Furthermore, the new standalone software delivers full-screen playback and Wi-Fi streaming not available on that previous edition.
The Symbian software will be available on Sling Media's Web site soon. It will cost $30 in the U.S., C$35 in Canada, and £20 in the U.K.--although the fee is waved for those who purchase the Nokia N95 in the U.S. As with other mobile versions, a free 30-day trial version will be available, so you can try before you buy. The Symbian SlingPlayer joins versions already available for Windows Mobile and Palm OS products, as well as Windows and Mac computers.
The announcement of the Symbian player software caps a busy week for Sling. In recent days, the company unveiled a buyout by Dish Network parent EchoStar, as well as the announcement of a new hardware product, the Slingbox Solo.
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