You get a strange message on your Bluetooth-enabled smart phone. The display says that someone from a Panasonic phone wants to send you a message—accept or not? You press no but the message returns. And the message keeps returning and returning…

Are you aware of what to do next? Do you even suspect or realize that your mobile device is about to be infected with one of about 150 known mobile-device viruses? What are the options for mobile phone virus protection?

Mobile phone viruses like Cabir, uses Bluetooth to infect users, and is found in some 30 countries worldwide, including the United States. So why aren’t mobile viruses well known in this country? A mobile-device virus could one day steal your identity or lock you out of your house!

In order for there to be mobile viruses, there must be a dominant operating system. After years of proprietary, and therefore diverse, operating systems, smart-phone manufacturers have begun adopting Symbian 8 as their platform of choice. It is estimated that in 2006 Symbian has about 70 percent of the world market for all phones, and Microsoft Windows Mobile has about 10 percent, while the rest is a combination of lesser-used platforms. In the United States, Symbian historically was only about 10 percent of the market. Thus, we haven’t seen or been affected by mobile-device viruses, as Europe and Southeast Asia have.

Below are the top ways that viruses are transferred.

Bluetooth viruses:
Mobile devices can get infected in four known ways, with Bluetooth the most pernicious. You’d think that after years of e-mail-based computer viruses, people would know how not to infect themselves with a virus–that they shouldn’t, for example, open an attachment sent by a stranger.

Memory cards:
If people start sharing memory cards to swap photos and music on their phones, we could start to see viruses spreading much faster in the mobile universe. This method might also install a Bluetooth virus.

MMS viruses and downloads:
A third way for a mobile device to get infected is via a Multimedia Message Service (MMS) virus such as Commwarrior.

Protection is coming:
Many companies are now offering mobile phone anti-malware protection and combined with mobile phone anti-theft protection. Expect greater protections to be on the market as mobile phone proliferate and operating system standards consolidate.