A leading security firm has warned that increasingly sophisticated malware is targeting the mobile space and that operating system (OS) makers are not doing enough to keep them out.

F-Secure, which last week warned that the commercial application FlexiSpy.A is in fact a Trojan virus, told Telecoms.com on Monday that more could be done to protect Smartphone users from malicious attacks.

Asked if the world's leading mobile OS maker, Symbian, was doing enough to prevent malware and other malicious attacks, Leslie Forbes, anti-virus consultant at F-Secure said: "No, they are not."

Forbes believes that Vervata, the creator of FlexiSpy.A has demonstrated its ability to "exploit the Symbian OS" and predicts more and worse to come.

"Even Microsoft is struggling here and wait till Vista (Microsoft's forthcoming operating system) arrives and we see the latest phones from the likes of Nokia with wifi enabled, Forbes said. "More could be done (to deal with malware on the OS) and once we see wi-fi really taking off (on mobile devices), it could lead to more and more concerted attacks from virus writers."

The Symbian OS has been repeatedly targeted by malware writers. Last year the Commwarrior worm made headlines after it was discovered attacking Symbian Series 60 devices. The worm is capable of spreading over Bluetooth and MMS messages. In February, Symantec reported that it had discovered nine Trojan viruses targeting Symbian.

Graham Titterington principle analyst at Ovum, agrees that Symbian needs to do more to beef its OS against malicious software. "Symbian will just have to do more work on its security as we move forward," Titterington said. "This is an operating system that was conceived at a time when malware wasn't a consideration."

The analyst argues that as smartphones take on more and more functionality such as bluetooth and wi-fi, the risk to the operating system increases. "These are effectively holes in the defences... Wi-fi in particular is something that needs attending to in terms of security."

Titterington suggests that for the Symbian OS to be truly robust against malware "it will probably need to be rebuilt from scratch".

David Wood, executive vice president for research at Symbian dismissed claims that his company could be doing more. "We're doing exactly the right thing" he told Telecoms.com. "We've been doing the right thing for ten years and we're doing it today. But one way we could deal with this is to shut down all external applications. Is that what some people mean by 'could do more?'"

Wood, who last year claimed the threat from mobile viruses is "overstated" said that comparisons between the desktop and the mobile device are "tenuous". He explained: "I reject completely the claim that end users will have to think hard about AV (anti-virus) in the future. There will of course be an arms race, as there is today... people trying to get in (to the Symbian OS)... Hopefully we will stay ahead."

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