Mobile Development News

A couple of days ago, a modified version of a Series 60 game called Mosquito began to circulate that contained a Trojan Horse.

This is how Wireless Week puts it:

The only way for a Symbian smartphone to become infected with this Trojan Horse is to illegally install and launch a "cracked," or pirated, version of the "Mosquitoes game." If the Trojan Horse is installed, it is designed to send text messages to premium rate numbers without the user's approval or knowledge, Symbian explained on its Website.

WirelessWeek.com

As with previous news of a virus, or other malicious code for mobiles, the news is travelling amazingly fast. Here are some further links:

Freelance UK :: Mosquito virus bites Symbian mobile phone users
CommsDesign - Another Symbian virus emerges

However, more recent information has come out showing that it's not actually a Trojan at all. In fact, it was designed to do exactly what it is doing.

Security experts have quashed reports that a pirated mobile videogame was host to the world's first malicious mobile phone virus, after it emerged that the supposed 'Trojan horse' component was originally inserted as a copy protection measure by the game's developer.

gamesindustry.biz - New Media section

In a statement on its web site, F-Secure explained:

"According to the manufacturer, the premium rate contract for the receiving phone numbers has been terminated, so although old versions of the game still send hidden SMS messages, it only costs the nominal fee of sending the message itself."

out-law.com - legal news and business guides

This is a good example of a case where just testing a feature isn't good enough. User trials and feedback must also be used.

It will be interesting to see if anyone tries to take legal action against the developer for sending the premium SMS messages without warning or asking. Given they got complaints, even though only hacked (and thus, illegal) version of the game still contained this code, some people might attempt it.