Mobile Phone Viruses Expected to Get Much Worse

F-Secure is a Finish company that "protects individuals and businesses against computer viruses and other threats spreading through the Internet and mobile networks."  The company works closely with ISP's and mobile phone companies like Nokia and has recently identified a new virus, called CommWarrior, that uses a combination of Bluetooth and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) to propagate. In an article on eWeek Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research at F-Secure, is quoted as saying that the worm does not currently present a major threat:

We have confirmation that the spreading over MMS messages works. However, there seems to be a significant delay between the MMS messages. As a result, Commwarrior will not spread rapidly like e-mail worms do

Why should we really care about mobile phone viruses? Well, according to Bob Francis of Infoworld:

imagine a virus that gets in your phone, begins dialing 1-900 phone numbers, and downloads data that gets added to your phone bill or your company's phone bill.

And his advice to peopel who are worried about the current threat is:

Don't install unknown applications arriving in MMS messages, and keep Bluetooth in undiscoverable mode. If that sounds similar to the advice given when viruses began spreading via e-mail -- "don't open e-mail from unknown parties" -- it shouldn’t be a surprise. Common sense may be the best advice of all.