Stealth Trojan pains Russian mobile users

Antivirus experts in Russia are warning of a mobile phone Trojan that could have users in the region racking up unsolicited charges on their phone bills.

Russian security company Kaspersky said Monday that it had encountered the malware in the wild, disguised a Java file. The .jar file is identified as ‘pomoshnik.jar’ and runs on any J2ME-enabled handset.

When installed, the program stealthily sends five SMS messages to a shortcode number, 1717, costing the victim around $15 (£8).

Kaspersky discovered that a Russian mobile content site, games.gsmland.ru, owns the shortcode, potentially leaving a trail straight back to the Trojan’s creator.

Given the fact that the Trojan is being circulated on Russian websites and uses a local SMS shortcode, it seems unlikely that it will spread beyond Russia.