SMobile Systems, a US-based mobile security solution provider, announced that it has prepared a mobile anti-virus update and disinfection tool for the company's Security Shield platform in order to protect Symbian S60 Nokia phones from being attacked by the latest mobile virus known as the Beselo worm.

The virus can easily spread worldwide, as it's being sent as multimedia (MMS) files with attractive titles, such as Beauty.jpg, Love.rm or Sex.mp3. When reaching a mobile device, the malware collects all the phone numbers from its address book and sends them a viral MMS with a SIS-packed version of the worm. Also, the Beselo worm sends itself to auto-generated numbers. Until now the virus can only affect Symbian S60 phones, like Nokia 6630, 6680, 7610 and N70, but it could be modified to attack other mobile Operating Systems too.

"SMobile has been at the forefront of monitoring and protecting against mobile malware attacks such as the one we are witnessing right now. Sadly, this worm proves that mobile viruses are no longer 'theoretical' in nature", said George Tuvell, Chief Technology Officer of SMobile. "This is a particularly insidious virus that is smarter in design, and ultimately more dangerous to consumers, corporate smart phone users and to the carriers who provide service to mobile customers, than nearly any previous attack that has gotten into the wild."

"SMobile's Security Shield now has been updated to protect against this worm, and to clean any handset already infected with this malware", continued Mr Tuvell. "We quickly identified this threat and developed the appropriate counter-measures to ensure that our corporate, institutional and individual customers have the highest level of security available in the market."

Rick Roscitt, SMobile's CEO, added: "SMobile's Security Shield has been lab tested by major carriers and handset manufacturers such as Nokia, British Telecom, AT&T and others. SMobile has the most complete, effective and powerful smartphone security tools on the market. We look forward to providing our protection software to any consumer whose handset has been infected with this worm, any corporation looking to prevent an incursion or any carrier looking to provide anti-virus protection as a value add service to their customers."