Nokia releases "Curse of Silence" SMS cure

Nokia has released SMS Cleaner for Nokia S60 3rd Edition (Initial or Feature Pack 1) based devices, which may have received a so called “Curse of Silence” SMS message. The "Curse of Silence" SMS message that blocks reception of further SMS's or MMS's on many current Nokia mobile phones was originally announced at the 25th Chaos Communication Congress (25C3) in Berlin by Tobias Engel, a member of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC). The CCC had also provided a video to demonstrate the "Curse of Silence" SMS on it's website.

Nokia's SMS Cleaner application aims to repair any Nokia S60 3rd Edition (Initial or Feature Pack 1) based device, which may have received the "Curse of Silence" SMS to allow it to continue receiving new SMS or MMS messages. Once the application is run, it will be un-installed and the phone will be restarted.

The application can be downloaded in several ways, however downloading it directly to your device via Nokia's website will likely be the easiest. To do so simply visit http://www.europe.nokia.com/smscleaner on your mobile device and download the application.

Nokia notes that there "there may be “Curse of Silence” messages queued up in the SMS Centre of your Operator Network. In this case you might need to install and run the application again."

See also:

• SMS Cleaner, Nokia SMS cleaner web page
• Nokia: SMS vulnerability is not a serious risk to customers, a heise online UK report
• 25C3: SMS "killer application" for many Nokia mobiles, a heise online UK report

(crve)