Sexy View SMS worm warning

A mobile phone worm that spreads by text message is doing the rounds, security experts have warned.

The worm, called Sexy View, is thought to be the first to spread via a text message, warned researchers at Finnish security firm F-Secure.

Designed to exploit vulnerabilities in smartphones, the text message appears to come from a contact of the recipient.

It tells the recipient to follow a link to a website offering 'sexy' pictures - this is where the worm's name comes from.

However, if you follow the link you are asked to install an application that embeds itself on the phone and sends information back to the criminals behind the worm. The data is used to send SMS spam to the recipient.

It also then spreads itself to all the numbers in your phone's contact book, F-Secure warned.

"Sexy View is important in many ways. It is the first text message worm ever. It's also the first mobile phone worm that circumvents the signature checks that are meant to secure the latest smartphones," Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure said.

"And the motive behind it seems to be to collect information for mobile phone spamming purposes. Mobile phone spam is already a big problem in some parts of the world – eventually it will be an issue everywhere," Hypponen continued.

Mobile phones are increasingly becoming targets of malicious attacks, with smartphones particularly vulnerable as reports of a Nokia S40 security flaw last August showed.