Most of us have install antivirus protection on our computers to catch all the viruses spread through email. (If you have not installed an anti-virus program - do it!) Recently, the push has been to catch "ad-ware" and "spy-ware". These are similar to viruses but are spread by visiting a web site. The web site inserts the program onto your computer. There are programs out there which will clean up a computer that has been affected by such programs and some programs to "innoculate" your computer from future such infections.

So, with all that effort to clean up commerce, where are the malicious programmers going next? To your handled computer and your phone. There have been viruses already for handheld computers running the Palm operating system. Recently, the first "backdoor" virus was reported for handheld computers running the Microsoft Windows CE operating system.

As phones get smarter and have more communications capabilities in them, programmers are figuring out how to create viruses for phones. Yep, the mobile phones are at risk. Reports are starting to come in about games which are changed to generate phone calls to premium numbers. Another report is about a backdoor virus which comes via an email. Another report is of a virus which comes through the Bluetooth port.

So far, the risks posed to the mobile phones are low. For example, the game runs on only one type of phone - not all phones. Likewise, any phone which has the BlueTooth port on it should

have the port set off when it is not needed. That will prevent the virus and the other problem of being "BlueJacked". (That is when someone sends an unwanted message to your phone when you didn't realize that they could. Another phone within 30 feet could send an unsolicited message which would pop up when you did not expect it.) Finally, an infected phone might not be able to infect your phone.

Mobile phones are running several operating systems. Some run the Symbian operating system. Some run the Palm operating system. Other phones are running no operating system. This diversity is helping keep the problem down. A virus written for one operating system will not work on the others. So, it is not possible to write one virus which can infect all the phones in an area. There are also anti virus programs for phones based on the Palm operating system (since it is the same as for a handheld computer).

To complicate the situation further, a few years ago, there was a hoax running around about the first virus for mobile phones. If you do a search for viruses on mobile phones, you can find a lot of information about the hoax as well about these actual viruses being found.

Again, we live in a dangerous world. New technology always has bugs in it and has ways to hurt us back that we never expected. If you want help with an infected computer system, handheld, or phone, give us a call.

Dave Randolph,
President, Prairie Trail Software
1-800-618-4199

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