Investigating Viruses on Handhelds

Many people mistakenly believe that PDAs and other handhelds are safe from computer viruses and malware; this isn’t true. Granted, there has been very little mal- ware created to target handheld computers, but this is changing, as the installed base of these devices gets larger.

Virus creators want more bang for their buck, which is why they spend more energy targeting systems with a large market share or high profile. This is why there are far fewer viruses that attack Macs than there are that attack Windows machines. Because there are so few Macs as compared to Windows machines, few virus writers want to waste their time going after them. There may not be too many viruses affecting them now, but as the number of PDAs increases, they will begin to get more attention from virus creators.

There are antivirus programs available for Palm and PocketPC machines. The best of these not only target known handheld viruses, but also will detect and remove viruses that affect PCs as well. This is important because your handheld can easily transport a PC virus and infect your WLAN. If you dock your handheld to your PC or connect to a network, either Ethernet or Wi-Fi, you’re vulnerable to viruses transported by a hand- held. Table 7-2 lists some of the antivirus software available for handhelds.

Table 7-2: Antivirus for Handhelds

Product Name	Handheld Platform	Developer and Web Site
Airscanner Mobile AntiVirus Pro	Pocket PC	Airscanner Corp. www.airscanner.com
VirusGuard	Palm OS	Mevix Software, can be downloaded at www.handango.com
BitDefender	Palm OS	BitDefender, www.bitdefender.com
MindSoft Pocket VirusShield	Pocket PC	MindSoft, www.mindsoft.com
F-Secure Anti-Virus for Pocket PC	Pocket PC	F-secure, www.f-secure.com