A Trojan horse computer program that uses infected computers to churn out mobile phone spam messages is causing concern among antivirus firms.
Concealed within another program, the Delf-HA Trojan can burrow into a computer鈥檚 hard drive. Once installed, it sends a torrent of advertising messages to random Russian mobile phone numbers, using the short message service (SMS) gateways provided by Russian mobile phone companies.
Though only a handful of computers have been infected with the Trojan so far, antivirus experts believe that it could mark the beginning of a new trend.
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鈥淭his is yet more evidence that spammers are in league with hackers and virus writers,鈥 says Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at UK antivirus firm Sophos. 鈥淪MS spammers are taking a leaf out of the book of email spammers and using unprotected, innocent PCs to pass on their unwanted messages.鈥
He adds that if the SMS gateway used can send messages internationally, then the problem could spread around the world.
Email spammers already use computers hijacked by Trojan programs to send out unwanted advertising. There are reports that computer hackers can make thousands of dollars by leasing access to these 鈥渮ombie鈥 machines to spammers.
Trick messages
SMS spam is a growing nuisance with around half of all European phone users saying they receive more than two unwanted messages every month. Some SMS spam messages are designed to trick recipients into calling a premium-rate phone number or signing up for an expensive service.
Michelle de Lussanet, a mobile phone analyst with Forester Research of Cambridge, Massachusetts, agrees that SMS spam is a growing concern. 鈥淚t is an issue,鈥 she told New Scientist. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not exactly like email spam, as you鈥檝e got to open and read each message to know if it鈥檚 spam, and most people don鈥檛 like being interrupted like this.鈥
But de Lussanet adds that several factors could hamper people sending bulk messages either via Trojans or by simply paying the networks. For one thing, the networks have recently been raising the cost. For another, it is a relatively trivial operation for mobile network operators to restrict the number of messages that can be sent from a single source to its customers.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a fairly simple mechanism and it will limit the amount of damage that is done,鈥 says de Lussanet.
