Nokia to inoculate phones with antivirus software

Nokia has entered a pact with Symantec to help secure its mobile phones from viruses that target certain kinds of handsets.

Under the agreement, announced on Wednesday, Nokia plans to arm its Series 60 smart phones with the Symantec Mobile Security antivirus program. The software is designed to ward off attacks that could compromise the extensive data, such as contact databases, that people store on their smart phones, the companies said. The devices typically have many computer-like features, including email and Web browsing, which have made them vulnerable to attacks.

Mobile phone virus outbreaks are a small but emerging threat, security experts have said. Security specialists F-Secure and Trend Micro, who develop antivirus software for handsets, claim the malicious code is proliferating. Yet research firm Gartner recently predicted that a fast-spreading phone virus or worm is unlikely to appear before 2008.

Nokia series 60 handsets running the Symbian operating system are the target of the CommWarrior Trojan horse, which has been spotted spreading.

Nokia and Symantec said their agreement follows two years of joint work to develop mobile security technology. Earlier this year, software maker Kaspersky Lab released its own mobile antivirus software.