HELSINKI, Finland — F-Secure Corp. said it is seeing record amounts of malware and the emergence of a new threat–mobile devices being taken "hostage."
The anti-virus specialist (www.f-secure.com) said in its quarterly report that its labs are receiving an average of 25,000 viruses and Trojans a day and that at this pace, the total will pass the 1 million mark by the end of the year.
The company also said that it is seeing reports out of China of the first "mobile ransom Trojans," which disable the handheld device and send a message offering to restore everything back to normal for about $7 paid through an online payment system.
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"Today's smartphones are so important to many people that they are prepared to pay a ransom to get back their phonebook, calendar and mobile e-mails, so we might well be seeing much more of this type of malware in the future," F-Secure said in its report.
F-Secure is based in Helsinki and offers its malware protections as a subscription service through more than 160 Internet service providers and mobile operators around the world, the company said.
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