Mobile phone virus rears its ugly worm-head

It's been a long time coming, but according to Russian antivirus company Kaspersky, the first smartphone worm, Cabir, is with us.

While this version of the virus poses little threat to mobile phone users, operators would be advised to take note. Cabir uses Bluetooth on Symbian phones to detect other Symbian phones and then transfers itself to the new host as a package file.

Hackers and researchers have repeatedly warned about problems with the security of the Bluetooth wireless standard. This worm, however, mostly takes advantage of the amount of trust the Symbian operating system invests in other Symbian-based smart phones.

Nokia, which took the wraps off five new phones on Monday, is in the process of buying a controlling share of Symbian, the company that licenses the operating system of the same name. Only one of the new phones runs the Symbian operating system.