14 DAY TRIAL // The Nokia Symbian S60 devices running S60 version 2.6, 2.8, 3.0 and 3.1 were reported, about a week ago, to be affected by a bug called “Curse of Silence.” Basically, the idea is that, in case of an SMS message that contains a unique 32-character ‘email address’ with a space at the end of it, the device will reject all other messages, whether they are texts or emails.
According to the latest news, a solution to this problem has been provided by some malware-protection software developers, yet it is not certain that people will end up installing the applications on their devices. One way to fix the problem would be a hard reset of the phone, but this solution requires users to backup their handsets quite often in order to prevent any data loss.
On the other hand, Nokia is also reported to have stepped up on the matter, by asking operators to block text messages that included long email addresses. This way, Nokia smartphones would be safe from rejecting other SMS or MMS until a full factory reset.
The phone maker hasn't announced officially which operators it has contacted in the matter, but it all points towards the fact that carriers are rather happy to cooperate, mainly due to the fact that users usually contact/bug the operator's support staff when a problem occurs.
One way or another, the owners of Nokia Symbian S60 devices using S60 version 2.6, 2.8, 3.0 or 3.1 should consider taking one of the above mentioned measures. Either backing up the device quite often or installing a malware-protection software onto the handset could prove a great solution against this “Curse of Silence” bug.
As for now, it seems that Dutch T-Mobile already started filtering messages, and other carriers are expected to do the same in a short while. At the same time, Nokia is also reported to consider providing a firmware update meant to fix the problem, yet the company does not see this as the perfect solution, considering that many users tend not to keep their devices updated.