The advent of smartphone viruses and Trojans mean your handsets, the data on them, and enterprise are no longer as safe as they once were. Symbian smartphones—the most popular smart device platform by mile—have been particularly hard hit by the onslaught of mobile malware over the last year.

When it comes to handhelds, the Symbian operating system (particularly Series 60 interface phones) are on the top of antivirus vendor's list.

The most recent security solution arrives courtesy of Symantec Corporation, which recently updated Mobile Security for Symbian to version 4.0. Symantec's software defends Series 60 phones as well as less commmon Series 80 communicators—such as the Nokia 9300 and 9500—from network intrusions as well as viruses, Trojan horses and worms.

Symantec says the software proactivly protects through real-time automatic and on-demand virus scanning of files. A firewall also intercepts both incoming and outgoing connection attempts and blocks or permits them based on a list of rules. LiveUpdate Wireless lets users download the latest virus protection updates directly to their smartphone.

In the enterprise, Symantec Mobile Security offers configurable client settings that can be set by an administrator and pushed over-the-air in a configuration file to a smartphone via third-party mobile device management systems.

Administrators can also locally or remotely configure, lock, and enforce security policies for devices and send SMS messages to the devices to trigger client applications to perform remote antivirus scans and updates.

Symantec Mobile Security 4.0 for Symbian is offered as a two-year downloadable service to consumers from for $44.95. Licensing deals are available to enterprises.

History
The first virus that spread itself through Multimedia Message Service(MMS) messages was discovered in March 2005. CommWarrior.a could send itself to any mobile phone in the world and was limited to Series 60 Symbian smartphones.

In January 2005, another virus, Gavno.a, hit handsets hard. This malware severely disrupted the functioning of a Symbian phone to the point where the handset could no longer make calls. Earlier threats (e.g. Skulls, Cabir, and Gear) only affected higher-level systems.

Gavno used a similar technique to the previous month's SEXXXY malware, which disabled just one button on a phone.

A second version of Gavno, Gavno.b, featured a slightly larger install file to bundle a copy of the Cabir and Camtimer Trojans. As a result, Cabir attempted to send a copy of Gavno and Camtimer to other nearby Symbian phones via Bluetooth.

See, Mobile Malware: The Brief History to learn more about earlier wireless viruses and Trojans.

You can find mobile security guidelines in the following articles:

--Handheld Security: Part V - Enforce Policies, Keep Network Safe

--Handheld Security: Part IV - The Mobile VPN

--Handheld Security: Part III - Evaluating Security Products

--Handheld Security: Part II - Understand Vulnerabilities

--Handheld Security: Part I - Learn the Basics

--Top 10 Items You Shouldn't Allow on Employee Unprotected PDAs (and what do about it)