Security threats Toolkit

Story: Fake virus texts send Evil message

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As part of the team responsible for the recent T-Virus “Outbreak” it’s with considerable mirth that we’ve watched the courageous “investigations” of Sophos, whose technicians “tracked down” the web site the messages came from – could they have spotted the URL clearly flagged at the bottom of each and every T-Virus message?

Cynics might also suggest that an opportunity to instil fear into mobile users about the possibility of viruses occurring on their phones may also be commercially handy for Sophos despite there being no documented evidence that a virus has ever been transmitted by SMS.

As for “unsolicited messages”, all T-Virus texts are forwarded to friends by friends in exactly the same way as used by Lycos, O2 and Yahoo amongst many others – by their definition all SMS is effectively “unsolicited” in that your friends don’t specifically ask you each time you send them a text message.

The final thing Sophos’ redoubtable technicians will have discovered is that their investigations will see them accumulating lots of points to win prizes such as PlayStation 2s, copies of the game and free Resident Evil branded merchandise. How nice!

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