This is a public service alert for all Symbian smartphone users. Beware of the Sexy-View Worm.

We're not kidding. That's what it's called - Sexy-View - and it's a "worm" (a type of computer virus) invading smartphones running on the Symbian OS, spread via text messages.

What does it do? It finds your subscriber information, including name, number, and network as well as address book/contact information. It then transmits that information to a site that proceeds to spam the victim's contacts with SMS text messages. As this worm tries to update itself almost immediately upon installation, it seems it might actually be a more insidious threat than "just" a virus. For starters, it might be capable (now or in the future) of accessing Twitter and Facebook contacts from people's smartphones as well.

How do you protect yourself? If you get a text message marked Sexy-View or Sexy-Space - DON'T OPEN IT.

To protect yourself from such a threat, there is one step you must consider performing, namely:

Activate the Master Device Password

Most smartphones have, usually in their Security Settings, a master device password that must be entered any time your device has sat idle for a set period of time before you can access any part of your smartphone. While it may seem annoying to have to enter in a password every time you want to get into your smartphone, it can save you from a heap of trouble should you lose your device.