Nokia responds to SMS "Curse of Silence" glitch

Nokia is asking operators to filter or block certain malicious SMS messages that can be sent to Symbian-based phones and used to block the phone from receiving further SMS or MMS messages, according to reports.

The vulnerability, which has been dubbed the "Curse of Silence," affects Symbian phones running on S60 versions 2.6, 2.8, 3.0 and 3.1, was first reported in late December at a conference sponsored by the Chaos Computer Club. Nokia claims that this does not pose a serious risk to customers and that they have received no reports of customers using S60 phones being affected by the malware. The company has said that it takes such claims seriously nonetheless. The Finnish giant is urging customers not to open SMS text messages from unknown senders and is reportedly working with Symbian to remedy the glitch. Nokia gained full ownership of Symbian this past fall. 
 
Nokia has not stated what operators it is contacting regarding the bug, though Dutch T-Mobile is reportedly cooperating. The company may also try to solve the problem via  firmware update.

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