Trojan Horse Sends Mobile Phone Spam

New IT security experts at Sophos have identified a new Trojan horse which attempts to send spam messages to mobile phone users.

The Delf-HA Trojan horse (Troj/Delf-HA) infects PCs then contacts a Russian website to download instructions on which spam campaign to run. It can plague owners of mobile phones by sending them unsolicited junk SMS text messages.

The Trojan horse sends spam SMS messages by using the “Send a text message” facility found on the websites of several Russian mobile phone network providers.

“Mobile phone spam can not only be a nuisance, but it can also cost the phone owner money. In the past we have seen SMS spam campaigns designed to encourage recipients to ring an expensive phone number, or sign-up for a costly chatline service,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. “Now SMS spammers are taking a leaf out of the book of email spammers, and using unprotected innocent PCs to pass on their unwanted messages.”

Although only a small number of instances of the Trojan horse have been sighted so far, Sophos recommends that companies protect their email gateways with a consolidated solution to thwart the virus and spam threats as well as secure their desktops and servers with automatically updated anti-virus protection.

Further information about Troj/Delf-HA can be found at: