Mobile device security firm F-Secure has discovered a
Trojan virus that crashes users’ smartphones and causes them to
lose their data.
The Fontal.A Trojan is aimed at Nokia Series 60 phones that run
on the Symbian operating system. The Trojan is spread through file
sharing, with a corrupted font file being installed on the
device.
The .sis file is usually given the "Kill Saddam" tag and this
file causes the mobile device to fail at the next re-boot. The only
way for a user to get going again is to re-format the device to the
original factory settings, meaning that they lose their personal
data held on the phone.
F-Secure hasn’t so far reported any infections of Fontal.A in
the wild. F-Secure has warned users to only install files from
trusted sources.
This is the fourth threat to Series 60 phones F-Secure has
reported in recent months.
