Palm, other handheld devices to face virus threats

HELSINKI (Reuters) -- Popular handheld electronic devices, like Palm, may soon face the same virus attacks millions of personal computers confront each year, a leading Finnish anti-virus group said on Thursday.

The potential threat to handheld devices, or personal digital assistants (PDAs), was reinforced this week when a virus-like program, known as a Trojan Horse, was accidentally released and believed to have infected handheld devices.

"This is only the beginning of the attack on handhelds," said Mikko Hypponen, manager of anti-virus research at F-Secure, told Reuters. "I think we'll see serious viruses affecting devices like Palm in the next three to six months."

Palm handhelds are the world's most widely sold PDAs.

Earlier this week a Swedish software developer said he accidentally released "Liberty Crack," which enters handheld devices such as Palm's and Handspring Inc.'s products, destroying games and programs that users have added.

The damage was seen as minimal and limited but several security firms, including F-Secure, have released anti-virus programs to banish it from computers linked to handheld devices and it was also removed from Internet sites.

"The Swede's program was short-lived and has virtually died out because it was a Trojan that doesn't replicate itself into other files and doesn't transfer automatically unlike computer viruses," Hypponen said.

U.S. McAfee.com Corp. said it was the second instance of a threat to the Palm-like devices the software company has seen, with the first occurring only in Europe, keeping the machine on until the battery ran out.

The Swedish Trojan entered the computer under the disguise of shareware for the Nintendo's GameBoy program "Liberty."

Anti-virus experts say that handheld devices will be more prone to virus attacks than mobile phones because of their connection to PCs that link up to the Internet and the infrared ports, which allow users to beam information between devices.

A growing number of these devices now also have direct access to the mobile Internet, increasing exposure.

The more people transfer games or other programs from a PC to a device or beam programs between Palms via infrared ports, the greater the risks that viruses can spread, experts say.

But mobile phones, which are much more widely used globally than PDAs, are also at risk, experts say. A Norwegian mobile Web firm said on Wednesday that some Nokia phones could freeze temporarily if certain text messages were sent to them.

Finnish Nokia Oyj Abp, the world's largest cell phone maker, told Reuters it was looking into this, but added that so far it had not found any proof of the claims.

With the expected growth in handheld devices this issue will become more crucial, especially for companies that have a large number of employees using such devices from U.S. Palm, Microsoft Corp., Handspring or other firms.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Palm gets hit with first Trojan horse
August 29, 2000
McAfee aims to shield networks from PDA viruses
August 30, 2000
Pentagon scrutinizes handheld security
August 1, 2000
Palm adds secure digital expansion slot
June 28, 2000
Virus threat spreads to wireless
June 14, 2000
Palm antivirus protection in the works

Palm.Com
F-Secure
Handspring
McAfee.com
Nokia
Microsoft

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