Over the weekend we received report about Commwarrior sighting in Italy.
So it seems that like Cabir also Commwarrior is slowly spreading to new countries. And as most people don't have Anti-Virus in their phones and are curious enough to install something that arrives over MMS, it doesn't matter that Commwarrior has been known since March, is it still able to spread.
If a phone is infected with Commwarrior it can be easily disinfected with F-Secure Mobile Anti-Virus. And if there is significant Commwarrior MMS traffic in the area, mobile phone operators are adviced to filter out the infected MMS traffic with F-Secure Mobile filter or other similar product.
According to postings at Italian mobile users group, some people have received the Commwarrior as MMS and installed it from there. So the extra steps required to install application over MMS do not seem to prevent people getting their phones infected.
When monitoring postings in various news groups and discussion sites, one worrying aspect we have found is that people do not seem to know that they should contact Anti-Virus companies when phones get infected. What we see that in many cases people get their phones infected, they ask help from other users in the forums.
This is bad since, they might get bad advice, such as instructions to format their phones, while using Anti-Virus or disinfection tool would be enough. Also it is problematic for us, since without user reports it is hard for us to keep track of the developments in the mobile field. And it is impossible for us to provide guaranteed detection for new malware, without getting a sample of it first.
So do pass word around, that if someones phone gets infected, he should contact Anti-Virus company for help. Advice costs nothing and it helps us to keep up to date whats going in.
Currently the Commwarrior has been sighted in following countries:
