TeliaSonera Finland and F-Secure united against mobile viruses

Aug 11, 2005: TeliaSonera Finland and F-Secure united against mobile viruses at the World Championships

Cabir spreads at the World Championships

TeliaSonera Finland and F-Secure have united against the Cabir mobile virus that is currently spreading at the Helsinki World Championships. The CERT FI group of the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority has also issued an alert on their Web site about mobile viruses spreading at the Helsinki World Championships and other large scale events.

Before a user can be infected, the current generation of mobile viruses requires the user to accept an installation query. The current mobile viruses target smartphones running the Symbian operating system. The most important measure in protecting oneself from mobile viruses is to ensure that the installed software comes from a reliable and trustworthy source. If Bluetooth services are used the mobile device should be protected by a security software package.

Those suspecting an infection can go to the Sonera Expo Customer Service Center in the stadium area, where the phone will be scanned and disinfected of viruses. For Sonera customers, Sonera will install the F-Secure Mobile Anti-Virus software on their customers’ phones. F-Secure Mobile Anti-Virus has an automatic update service, which will protect the devices from malware automatically. The software is free for a month to all World Championship visitors. The Service center will also guide visitors in downloading the software from mobile.f-secure.com.

”We want to make sure that visitors can continue using the best features of their advanced mobile phones to enhance their experience during the championships. In order to prevent mobile malware from spreading at the event, we provide a powerful security software”, says VP of Mobile Services Pasi Mehtonen from TeliaSonera Finland. ”We have already taken measures earlier this year to prevent any known viruses from infecting Sonera customers through MMS messages,” he continues.

Mikko Hyppönen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure Corporation, says: ”Malware that spreads through Bluetooth or MMS are typical for large scale events hosting visitors from dozens of countries. The same phenomenon has been seen in other events, such as the recent Live 8 concert. If you want to have Bluetooth enabled in a crowd, you should use security software.”

The Cabir worm only spreads through Bluetooth on the Symbian Series 60 operating systems. The Symbian installation file (SIS) that contains the virus will appear in the incoming messages box of the phone. The worm activates, if the user of the receiving phone chooses to accept and install the received file, seeking new Bluetooth phones to infect. Once activated, the Cabir worm depletes the battery of a phone relatively fast. Cabir was first detected June 15th 2004, and it is the first known mobile virus. For more information on Cabir, please see: http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/cabir.shtml

About F-Secure Corporation F-Secure Corporation is the fastest growing publicly listed company globally in the antivirus and intrusion prevention industry with more than 50% revenue growth in 2004. F-Secure services and software protect individuals and businesses against computer viruses and other threats coming through the Internet or mobile networks. Our award-winning solutions include antivirus and desktop firewall with intrusion prevention, antispam and antispyware solutions. Our key strength is our proven speed of response to new threats. For businesses our solutions feature a centrally managed and well integrated suite of solutions for workstations and servers alike. Focused partners offer security as a service for those companies that do not wish to build security expertise in-house.

Founded in 1988, F-Secure has been listed on the Helsinki Exchanges since 1999. We have our headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, and offices in USA, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Japan. F-Secure is supported by a global ecosystem of service partners, value added resellers and distributors in over 50 countries. F-Secure protection is also available through mobile handset manufacturers such as Nokia and as a service through major Internet Service Providers, such as Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and Charter Communications. The latest real-time virus threat scenario news are available at the F-Secure Antivirus Research Team weblog at http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/

For more information, please contact:

F-Secure Corporation
Mikko Hyppönen, Chief Research Officer
PL 24
00181 Helsinki
Finland
Gsm +358 (0)40 064 8180
Fax (09) 2520 5001