Monday, August 25, 2003
Is Your PDA A Target For A Virus?
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "NEWS" @ 08:00 AM
http://pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php?id=18682489&fp=2&fpid=1
Symantec and other antivirus companies are betting it is. "Symantec will introduce this week Symantec AntiVirus for Handhelds, mobile device-residing software designed to detect malicious code for the Palm and Pocket PC platforms. Despite little evidence that viruses severely affect handheld devices, security vendors want to ensure on-demand AV (anti-virus) infrastructure protection if an outbreak occurs."
For now, I think PDAs have a bit of security by obscurity. Also, because the applications on the Pocket PC don't offer scripting capabilities, someone is going to have to actually have to sit down and write a full blown application to pull email addresses from your contact database, and whatever they do on that front won't work on PalmOS.
One area of concern I do have is an MSBlaster type attack. We've learned that to be a target for that type of attack, you need to do two things. 1) Turn your PC on. 2) Go online. Nothing else. You can be infected by that worm on a broadband/LAN connection before you even log in. I have no clue what ports on my Pocket PC are open. :? I don't know how widespread an attack could get with online Pocket PCs, especially those on a high speed WiFi connection. I do know that since the MSBlaster attack a few weeks ago, when I am online with my iPAQ over a GPRS connection and it slows down to a crawl, I wonder, is my bandwidth being taken up with a worm slithering its way into my Pocket PC, or is it just another GPRS slowdown? 8O
Symantec and other antivirus companies are betting it is. "Symantec will introduce this week Symantec AntiVirus for Handhelds, mobile device-residing software designed to detect malicious code for the Palm and Pocket PC platforms. Despite little evidence that viruses severely affect handheld devices, security vendors want to ensure on-demand AV (anti-virus) infrastructure protection if an outbreak occurs."
For now, I think PDAs have a bit of security by obscurity. Also, because the applications on the Pocket PC don't offer scripting capabilities, someone is going to have to actually have to sit down and write a full blown application to pull email addresses from your contact database, and whatever they do on that front won't work on PalmOS.
One area of concern I do have is an MSBlaster type attack. We've learned that to be a target for that type of attack, you need to do two things. 1) Turn your PC on. 2) Go online. Nothing else. You can be infected by that worm on a broadband/LAN connection before you even log in. I have no clue what ports on my Pocket PC are open. :? I don't know how widespread an attack could get with online Pocket PCs, especially those on a high speed WiFi connection. I do know that since the MSBlaster attack a few weeks ago, when I am online with my iPAQ over a GPRS connection and it slows down to a crawl, I wonder, is my bandwidth being taken up with a worm slithering its way into my Pocket PC, or is it just another GPRS slowdown? 8O
