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Mobile botnets 'have arrived'

The discovery of a new piece of malware that spreads between mobile devices via text messages has marked the arrival of mobile botnets, it has been claimed.

According to new research conducted by Trend Micro, the new worm, known as Sexy Space, is a variant of the mobile malware strain Sexy View.

Both target devices running the Symbian S60 OS.

Sexy View was the first piece of malicious code to be discovered which used SMS to infect mobile devices and was particularly abundant in China.

However, Sexy Space, not only infects mobiles, but connects them to an external server allowing cybercriminals to send further spam messages to people in the handsets phonebook – the first time any malware designed for mobile phones has been able to do so.

Meanwhile, Symantec has claimed that malicious links sent via instant messaging services are on the increase.

The company claims one in 78 links sent redirects users to a site containing malware.

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