I have a Treo that I plan on using to access the Internet. Are viruses a problem? If I should use anti-virus software, any recommendations or places to buy it? Thanks.
It depends on how paranoid you are. 
Currently, the malware for Windows Mobile is virtually non-existent.
There is one stupid virus which asks for permission before replicating, and a couple of Trojan horses that are even more stupid. (As opposed to Symbian phones, for which there are lots of viruses and other malware.)
However, the platform is definitely vulnerable. Viruses for it are possible and recently it was demonstrated that is possible to overtake a remote Windows Mobile phone just by sending a specially crafted MMS message to it.
In any case, a generic protection like a firewall would currently make more sense than a virus scanner for Windows Mobile based devices. Nevertheless, if you really want a virus scanner for Windows Mobile, most of the big anti-virus companies (McAfee, Symantec, F-Secure, etc.) would happily sell you one.
2 responses so far ↓
1 BryanB // Jan 9, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Yes. My uncle got virus on his cell phone just because he turned on the GPRS system and not at all open any website.
I don't know exactly where to buy but major anti virus company lika mcafee or symantec have anti virus for mobile phone. Check out their websites.
References :
2 Vesselin Bontchev // Jan 10, 2007 at 3:33 pm
It depends on how paranoid you are.
Currently, the malware for Windows Mobile is virtually non-existent. There is one stupid virus which asks for permission before replicating, and a couple of Trojan horses that are even more stupid. (As opposed to Symbian phones, for which there are lots of viruses and other malware.) However, the platform is definitely vulnerable. Viruses for it are possible and recently it was demonstrated that is possible to overtake a remote Windows Mobile phone just by sending a specially crafted MMS message to it.
In any case, a generic protection like a firewall would currently make more sense than a virus scanner for Windows Mobile based devices. Nevertheless, if you really want a virus scanner for Windows Mobile, most of the big anti-virus companies (McAfee, Symantec, F-Secure, etc.) would happily sell you one.
References :
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/archive-122006.html#00001064
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