Mention mobile phone viruses and the chances are you will get one of two responses:

1. It is a money making exercise for security vendors who have created the mobile phone virus myth so they can sell protection nobody needs.
2. Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

However, the arrest of a 28 year old man in Valencia, Spain puts a different perspective on things. He has been held on suspicion of creating and distributing more than 20 variants of the mobile phone Cabir and Commwarrior worms which target Symbian driven smartphones. When it comes to mobile phone security, Windows is not the bad guy for a change, Symbian is. Mind you, this is only because there are vastly more Symbian powered handsets than there are Windows ones at the moment.

Graham Cluley, Senior technology Consultant at security specialists Sophos told DaniWeb “Mobile phone viruses are not nearly as common as the malware that strikes Windows desktops on a regular basis, but they are just as illegal in their intent. Viruses are not harmless pranks; they cause real harm disrupting business and personal communications as well as destroying and stealing sensitive data.”

Surprisingly, a Sophos survey reveals that 64 percent of IT admins admit to having no mobile security solution in place to protect smartphones and PDAs, despite 81 percent of them agreeing that mobile malware will become a significant threat sometime in the future. Perhaps, in light of this arrest, that time is now?