Kaspersky Lab has launched an open beta testing period for its latest anti-virus software for Symbian smartphones. Called Anti-Virus Mobile 2.0, the program is designed to protect against malicious programs and unwanted SMS/MMS messages or spam.

The company said Anti-Virus Mobile intercepts malware in real-time and on demand, by scanning files on the smartphone; including memory cards. User can perform anti-virus database updates - via WAP or HTTP - automatically using a scheduling tool or manually, and on the demand from the handset itself.

Unlike previous versions, infected files or folders are quarantined to prevent the loss of important data and the program is more reliable because it can unpack and scan the contents of .sis files, which is often used to distribute malicious code to smarpthones, according to Kaspersky.

The ant-spam component has three predefined operating modes with different filtering levels: Enable, Black/White Lists Only and Disable.

Enable filters incoming SMS/MMS messages based on lists actively compiled by the users. If it isn't on either the Black (bad) or White (good) list, the anti-spam module prompts the user to block or allow the message, and then to add the sender's number to one of the lists.

Black/White Only mode filters incoming messages based only on what's already on the two lists already. With Disable, there is no filtering whatsoever.

Anti-Virus Mobile 2.0 works with Symbian OS versions 6.1, 7.0s and 8.X and the Series 60 user interface.

A second beta, currently in development, will support the Symbian UIQ interface as well as Microsoft’s Windows Mobile versions 2003 and 5.0.