Dozens of cases in India

May 24, 2006 09:31 GMT  ·  By

The popularity around Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code, couldn't have gone unexploited by virus authors, who would do anything to spread their malicious creations.

According to the Mid Day Indian Daily, a virus bearing the name of the bestseller book has infected dozens of phones in India.

The virus spreads via wireless Bluetooth technology, and causes a message to pop up on Bluetooth devices: 'Receive message via Bluetooth from Da Vinci Code?'

The malicious code is extremely dangerous, once the message is accepted, all the data on the phone being destroyed.

The only way to get rid of the Da Vinci Code virus is to format the phone and to reinstall the software.

As it always happens when viruses use different movies and books to spread, users are curious to see what's behind the cryptic messages and they accept data transfers.

"The Da Vinci Code name actually excited me. I assumed the file was either an MMS clipping or a still and accepted it," Mridul Sharma, an operations manager, told Mid Day.