A new Trojan virus has been found that attacks Java-based mobile phones and sends costly text messages to phone numbers.
Like the dialer ruse, now mobile phone users have something to worry about because the text messages cost $6.
The virus, called RedBrowser.a, is a Java applet that fakes a mobile web browser that uses Short Message Service (SMS) rather than GPRS/3G to transmit web pages, telecom officials say.
With its debut, RedBrowser becomes the first mobile threat to target mass-market phones and signifies that virus writers are widening their reach and no longer only targeting smart phones.
According to anti-virus researchers, RedBrowser can only occur after it infects a phone by being downloaded from a WAP website or by connecting it to a PC that has the virus.
So far, only Russian mobile device users have been affected.
“The threat is still very limited,” said Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research at F-Secure. “This thing does not spread by itself and we have no direct reports of anybody being hit by it in Russia, where the first reports were from.”
Hypponen said that when in place, the malware keeps sending the text messages to premium rate numbers – controlled by the hacker – and users are hit with the $6 charge per message.
They only find out about the fees when they get their monthly phone bill, he said.
