AhnLab announced that it finished developing an anti-virus software for cellular phones running Symbian Operation System, temporalily dubbed, 'V3Mobile for Symbian OS'.

The newly developed 'V3Mobile for Symbian OS' provides Symbian OS cellular phones with the following key anti-virus functions:

- Manually scan viruses
- Delete viruses found
- Operate and Update scheduling in various ways
- Manage virus quarantine and profiles

Plus, the product includes several functions specialized in mobile phones.

There are frequent Symbian OS phone damages from mobile malicious codes and viruses in the regions where Symbian phones are serviced including Europe, America, and Southeast Asia.  Thus, many related products have been developed and provided, and they are actively involved in businesses with mobile phone manufacturers.

According to AhnLab's ASEC Report: malicious codes trend analysis 2005 reported on December 19,  a number of malicious codes for Symbian OS such as Doomboot, Cardtrap, and Cardblock have frequently occurred in foreign countries. So far, however, any damages from mobile mailicous codes are yet to be reported in Korea.  In the 3rd quarter of this year, the method of transferring mobile malicious codes was changed from Bluetooth to MMS ( Multimedia Messaging Service ) and thus passed over the regional limitation.  Moreover, other kinds of malicious codes that infect other mobile phone operating systems occurred, which increases security threats on cellular phones, the report says.

"Mobile virus is not just a marketing buzz now because threats from mobile viruses, hackers and spam keep growing and such threats could cripple mobile device users in the near future," said, Eunseong Kang, Director of ASEC ( AhnLab E-response Center ). "That's why AhnLab has prepared its arsenal and tried to stay ahead of hackers."

Since its successful development of an anti-virus product for Palm, a PDA operation system, in 2001, AhnLab has been accumulating technologies and expertises for mobile security by working together with SK Telecom and AhnLab Ubiware to co-develop mobile anti-virus for WI-TOP ( Korea Wireless Internet Platform ) and WI-PI ( Korea Wireless Internet Platform ) in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

"The development of the anti-virus for mobile phones powered by Symbian OS which takes a major part in the global market, gave us a chance to enter into a global mobile security market." said, Ike Kim, the vice-president of AhnLab. "We plan to continue our business in the area through close partnership with mobile phone manufacturers and telecommunication companies for our mobile security offerings."