Virus in Vodafone handset!

Internet security firm Trend Micro has said that its researchers were alerted to the discovery of a malware that came pre-installed on a Vodafone mobile phone handset.

In a statement, Trend Micro said that Vodafone has been taking the heat for packing malware straight out of the box on their HTC Magic Android smartphones. Plugging the phone in via USB into any PC quickly led to an infection by WORM_SILLY.QT, the statement added. 

Trend Micro threat researcher, Ryan Flores, believes that most likely a computer in Vodafone's production line has been infected by WORM_SILLY.QT. And, because of the worm's capability to propagate through removable drives, somehow SD cards in a certain batch of smartphones were infected.

The recipient of one of the malware-laden phones was, fortunately, an employee of the antivirus firm Panda Security.

In an official statement, Vodafone has said that the infected phone problem was an isolated one.