New Variants of ‘Old’ Symbian Mobile Spyware Emerge

According to a recent advisory, a new variant of spyware “Spy.Felxispy” targeting Symbian devices has recently been identified by the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre of China. According to NetQin, more than a dozen variants of the spyware have emerged since the first was spotted, and the latest has affected 150,000+ devices. Note that Spy.Felxispy is NOT new malware, these are variants of it. The malware is also sometimes know as “Trojan-Spy:SymbOS/Flexispy.A” as identified by security firm F-Secure and others, and has been floating around since 2006.

According to NetQin, the cybercriminals usually install the spyware on the phone by sending an MMS containing the spyware to users to lure them to click.

Once installed, the spyware will turn on the Conference Call feature of the device without users’ awareness. When users are making phone calls, the spyware automatically adds itself to the call to monitor the conversation. Additionally, the Spy.Felxispy mobile malware can remotely turn on the speaker on the phone to monitor sounds around users without the users’ awareness. Apart from that, the spyware is also capable of synchronizing the messages the user received and delivered to the monitoring phone, compromising users’ privacy.

Related Tech Track: Mitigation of Security Vulnerabilities on Android & Other Open Handset Platforms

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