We are receiving reports that there is a widespread outbreak of HatiHati on Symbian handsets in the Middle East, southern Europe and parts of south east Asia. The number of infected devices is unclear but reports suggest:

• At least 150,000 handsets infected in Turkey
• 100,000 infected handsets in Algeria
• At least 50,000 infected handsets in Syria
• 5,000 infected handsets in Malaysia

HatiHati mainly spreads via memory cards, so the extent of this outbreak is surprising, but it is causing problems for some operators as they try to deal with the volume of SMS messages generated by infected handsets. We have heard suggestions that the outbreak is centred in Syria but are unable to confirm that at this time.

If these reports are confirmed, this will be the first major outbreak of malware on mobile devices.

We will post more information as we get it.