According to Finnish security company F-Secure, the mobile phone virus Cabir has now infected phones across 20 different countries. Using Bluetooth, the virus has passed from phone to phone in many nations, including the US, China and Russia.
In order for a phone to become infected, the recipient has to first accept a request for his or her phone to connect with a nearby phone. In addition, the virus is only travelling when people travel the world. It does not do much harm once it infects a phone, other than trying to spread to other phones, but it does represent a pretty scary proof of concept, and might pave the way for more destructive cell phone viruses in the future.