Should I be worried about viruses for my Symbian smartphone?

A. Much of the media coverage of the few Symbian viruses has been ridicuously frenzied, not helped by anti-virus firms (with a vested interest) proclaiming that two variants of the original Cabir concept virus are 'spreading fast'. As you'll know from installing Symbian applications, there are numerous questions to answer during the installation process (the most fundamental being 'Install xxxxx?'). In addition, there's the initial 'Receive message via Bluetooth?' question if and when your smartphone gets contacted by a theoretically-infected phone. Just say 'No' should this ever happen.

The Cabir virus is no different to any other Symbian application and needs quite a bit of implicit acceptance on your behalf, so there's no danger in being invisibly infected, as happens in the PC world. Apart from the remote possibility of someone else's smartphone trying to beam you Cabir, or one of its variants, the other way for your smartphone to contract something nasty is to download and install an application that's not all it claims to be, for example a game or utility. Such deceptive programs are usually only found on 'warez' (illegal software) sites, so by staying within mainstream download sites (and their links) you will be perfectly safe. In general, when looking for third party software for Symbian smartphones, start looking on AllAboutSymbian's shop, www.my-symbian.com or on 3lib.ukonline.co.uk.