05-25-2003, 05:00 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Virus Scanning On Your Pocket PC?
AirScanner just released a virus scanner for the Pocket PC: AirScanner Mobile AntiVirus Pro, and it got me thinking as to the importance of virus scanning on handhelds. I don't run a virus scanner on my Pocket PC right now, for a number of reasons:- I am pretty conservative about what I install on my Pocket PC;
- The viruses that infect desktops cannot infect a Pocket PC, as they have a different processor and OS;
- I don't believe a widespread virus exists for the Pocket PC (note the virus scanner, in the screenshot, picked up Eicar, which is a "test" string that's triggered as a virus just to make sure the virus scanner works);
- I believe the slowdown of a realtime scanner would be substantial, and a non-realtime scanner wouldn't be all that useful.
However, I'm curious as to what everyone else thinks. Do you run a virus scanner on your handheld device?
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05-25-2003, 05:27 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 541
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This is just feeding off the fears of Windows users, like the people shying away from Linux, etc, because it doesn't have an anti virus.
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05-25-2003, 05:41 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,162
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I'm really wondering how a virus would propogate itself then.
If it executed on the PPC then unless it was connected to ActiveSync then it wouldn't be able to reach another PPC to infect it. Okay, it might be bad if you have a WiFi connection.
Otherwise it would just be a program that just trashes your system.
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05-25-2003, 06:10 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 593
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My PPC virus IS ActiveSync
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05-25-2003, 06:15 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 116
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The only instance in which I have ever heard of a Pocket PC virus was when some developer got fed up with people stealing his software over IRC channels and file sharing programs and decided to do something about it. He put fake programs up on these various services and when users installed it, it hard reset their units. This happened quite a while ago and I forget what program did it...but this obviously is not widespread. I see absolutly no need for an anti virus program at this point in time. It isn't even useful for those who are "cautious" because as of now there seems to be no real threat of virus to Pocket PC users.
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05-25-2003, 06:23 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 430
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I have PC-Cillin 2002, which has a PocketPC version packaged with it.
I have never installed it (although I just need to click a button), because, the number of viruses to protect myself from is miniscule. I dont get email on my PPC (yet), so I dont expect to have to worry about email propogating viruses - and when I do, I dont think I'll be downloading attachments anyway, and if I do, will the macros work in PocketWord or Excel - NO. What else is there to go wrong? Unless a virus is written in .Net - there is little chance it will execute given the architectural differences already noted, and IF it is written in .Net - it still has to be compiled for smart devices anyway.
Maybe the threat is from Java :wink:
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Darryl BurlingReporting from the inside :-)blog: www.burling.co.nz |
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05-25-2003, 06:28 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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A little while after I'd installed AVG onto my PC, I was doing some backup type stuff, moving copies of my installers over from an external HDD to the PC, just to have another copy. Grisoft's AV grabbed three virii out of that transfer and locked them down. Seems that 2 CAB files and an EXE had been carrying extra baggage. Then a bit later that week I downloaded something else, through my Casio modem, and for some reason I dumped a copy to the PC via Activestink. AVG to the rescue again, killing the infected file dead in moments without harm.
If I'd had an AV scanner that worked on my PPC, these would never have got that far, as I constantly access that Accurite HDD from my Casio and iPAQ. But of the 4 or 5 PPC AV softwares I've tested, none has ever found a single virus, even when I deliberately save one out of spam and put it any old place and run a scan. Tried that again last week, when I'd just installed this latest PPC AV from AirScanner... nothing. Found no virus, though I intentionally saved two different worms from that morning's particularly plentiful crop of junk mail. It comes in waves, with the richest days getting me 4 or 5 of the little critters, mostly in 'SCR' format.
So as far as I can see, none of these things even works yet. Maybe this one does on a test file it's specifically designed to spot, but on a real-world virus it's a dud.
No real concern here though. I rarely bring stuff over to a PC, and when I do, AVG nails it if it's bad, and I keep that one updated faithfully. As for email, not an issue, as nPOP only downloads what I tell it to download. That's about the most solid AV there is. The first few lines of code in a virus that my email preview shows can't do my PPC any harm.
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Gerard Ivan Samija
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05-25-2003, 07:22 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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That's one kind of business thinking, I suppose. Not terribly productive though, especially if anyone found out and spread the word. It'd be very effective business suicide, actually.
Anyway, BitDefender, Symantec, AirScanner, and whatever else the other ones were called that I tested and dumped, they're all FREE! So there's really no money to be made, right? Perhaps they'd start charging if one ever caught a real, live virus, or if a PPC virus became possible, but for now there seem only to be losses involved in terms of download bandwidth, and from the looks of this survey, not a lot of that, either.
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Gerard Ivan Samija
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05-25-2003, 08:10 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 327
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Gremmie
My PPC virus IS ActiveSync
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DITTO!!!!
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05-25-2003, 09:13 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 100
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Gremmie
My PPC virus IS ActiveSync
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Gremmie's got that right... Cheers! :mrgreen:
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