MSIL/Terdial.D

MSIL/Terdial.D is a Trojan that attacks mobile phones that use certain Windows operating systems. Most victims of a MSIL/Terdial.D attack acquire the MSIL/Terdial.D infection by downloading a game that contains MSIL/Terdial.D hidden inside its installation routine. MSIL/Terdial.D's payload consists of dialing high-cost numbers at semi-random intervals, with the resulting charges appearing on your cell phone bill. If you value your money or your mobile phone's security, delete MSIL/Terdial.D as soon as you can with appropriate anti-virus software.

MSIL/Terdial.D: A Trojan Just for Your Cell Phone

Unlike the majority of Trojans that target PCs, MSIL/Terdial.D is designed explicitly to attack mobile phones, specifically ones that run Windows Mobile 6.5. Updating your phone to a more recent operating system may help to protect your phone from a MSIL/Terdial.D attack.

MSIL/Terdial.D distributes itself by being packaged with a gaming application called '3D Anti-Terrorist action.' Although this game is a legitimate application, the MSIL/Terdial.D infection that's bundled with it is wholly malicious. The infected file bundle may be named after the game or it may be named like a codec or other movie update: example installation files include 'antiterrorist3d.cab' and 'codecpack.cab.'

Although MSIL/Terdial.D emerged as a threat in 2010, it has seen limited distribution and your chances of becoming infected by it are relatively small. In addition, as a mere five kilobyte-sized file, MSIL/Terdial.D has a negligible file size and may not seem like a threat due to this. However, an infection by MSIL/Terdial.D is still dangerous, if primarily to your bank account.

The MSIL/Terdial.D Payload That Hits Your Wallet

MSIL/Terdial.D's payload is to dial a variety of international and high-charge phone numbers at semi-random periods. The time between MSIL/Terdial.D's dialing attacks may be as long as three days or as short as under twenty-four hours. This can result in sky-rocketing phone bill expenses if you don't notice MSIL/Terdial.D and figure out how to delete MSIL/Terdial.D before it can make too many calls.

MSIL/Terdial.D is also detected by other slight variations of its name, including Trojan:WinCE/Terdial, MSIL/Terdial.A, Trojan.Terred, MSIL/Terdial.C and MSIL/Terdial.B. The exact variant name that MSIL/Terdial.D uses doesn't change the recommended solution for removing MSIL/Terdial.D: use a good anti-virus program to sweep MSIL/Terdial.D out of your phone, before the phone bill ratchets up to painful levels.

At the time of this writing, MSIL/Terdial.D isn't able to cause this attack on normal PCs, but the presence of a MSIL/Terdial.D infection on your computer should still be considered a security weakness to be eradicated with all due haste. In this case, standard anti-virus strategies apply, and you can delete MSIL/Terdial.D by using the same software that you would use to delete any other Trojan.