Vodafone, you screwed up. And, it was not an isolated incidence, as you would have us believe. Now admit it, and get your act together.

Earlier in the month, Panda Research had uncovered ^[1] a Mariposa bot client in a brand new handset delivered by Vodafone. This unsettling revelation received widespread media coverage and prompted an employee of the Spanish IT security company S21Sec to scan his own phone. You have probably guessed the result ^[2] by now. Yeah, much to his surprise, he found malwares on his own phone.

The HTC Magic handset in question is brand new and was ordered from the official Vodafone website. Analysis ^[3] by the Panda Research team revealed that the handset was infected on March 1st, 2010, approximately a week before the handset was delivered by Vodafone.

A second occurrence is particularly unsettling because it indicates that the problem might be more widespread than initially reported. Vodafone has already pulled the HTC Magic, but they still have plenty of explaining to do.

Image credit: Novarider.com ^[4]