Your handset is being hacked into by a deadly virus, that is capable of controlling your cellphone and even destroying the data stored in the mobiles, a top official of a leading anti-virus and Internet content security firm warned on Friday.

"The virus threat to mobile phones are real and could be more deadly than you could imagine," Niraj Kaushik, country manager (India) of Nasdaq-listed Trend Micro Inc, which just released a free trial of new protection for mobile devices, 'malware' (malicious software) that attack mobile phones, said in Chennai.

Considering that the mobile phones are always "switched on and networked", the chances of virus attacks are much more than on computers, he said.

Due to the rising popularity of data-centric mobile phones and personal digital assistants, these devices could become an attractive target for virus writers in the future, Kaushik warned.

Already, three malware programmes that affect mobile phones were detected during November, but these were considered harmless.

However, a fourth virus, which was detected in December first week, was found to be very destructive. "This virus allowed hackers to control your cellphone," Kaushik said.

All the virus attacks were witnessed on multi-functional smart phones, that have latest features like Internet connectivity and in-built cameras.