BBC NEWS | Technology | Mobiles get anti-virus protection

BBC NEWS | Technology | Mobiles get anti-virus protection: "Anti-virus software for mobile phones is going on sale in the High Street.
Finnish security firm F-Secure has created the security program in reaction to the growing number of viruses that infect handsets.
Outbreaks of these viruses that hop from phone to phone have been recorded at a Live8 concert and at the World Championships in Helsinki.
Many security experts believe that phone bugs will eventually become as big a nuisance as Windows viruses.

Growing threat

Richard Hales, UK manager for F-Secure, said that although many mobile operators had software in their networks to stop viruses propagating, more protection was needed to stop the bugs jumping from phone to phone.
'Handset to handset is a good way to deliver a virus,' said Mr Hales.
In recent months, more viruses for mobile phones and variants of old ones have started to appear.
Mobile viruses such as Cabir and Commwarrior can spread via the Bluetooth short range radio system found on many smart phones. Commwarrior can also spread via multimedia messaging systems.
Most of the mobile phone viruses target handsets that use the Symbian operating system. Infection can be avoided by turning off Bluetooth on smart phones.
Mr Hales said that currently only about 10% of handsets were so-called smartphones that can fall victim to these viruses. However, he said, the numbers of smartphones was going to inevitably rise making more and more people vulnerable to infection. "