Finnish computer security company F-Secure said since mobile phone virus Cabir, which spreads through wireless earphones, first appeared in June 2004, at least 12 countries have been infected with the virus. Anti-virus and security industry experts who attended the 3GSM World Congress for the third-generation mobile multimedia services industry in Cannes, France, said a total of six types of mobile phone viruses have been found so far.

This has given rise to a lively mobile phone virus "vaccine" industry. F-Secure provided antivirus program to Switzerland's Swisscom and Finnish telecom operator Elisa. Subscribers can use the vaccine at the cost of 2 euro per month. Korea’s AhnLab Inc. meanwhile developed a V3 Mobile vaccine for mobile phones last year and supplied it to SK Telecom, which lets customers download it for free.

In Korea, where cutting-edge models with latest programs are commonplace, mobile phone bugs are a greater threat than viruses. Since the Seoul YMCA set up a center for complaints about mobile phone damage and inconvenience last November, it received over 800 reports of bugs, it said.

One college student said he bought a cell phone worth W700,000 (US$680) last October and experienced problems like the phone turning itself off when ringing and having to press “send” several times to get a text message on the way. After-sales service was no help - on the contrary, phone numbers stored in the directory, games, and bells downloaded from the Internet disappeared in the repair process.

Other subscribers complain that the screen appears upside down, call records are deleted, and they cannot hang up the phone even if they snap the phone shut.

The YMCA says mobile phone makers are racing to put out new models equipped with the latest technology to lure customers, but are slow to increase product security and distribute anti-bug program patches.

(Baek Gang-young, young100@chosun.com )