Airscanner Releases Mobile Antivirus For Windows Mobile Smartphone

[Kris Kumar]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.airscanner.com/downloads/smartphone/smav.html' target='_blank'>http://www.airscanner.com/downloads/smartphone/smav.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Airscanner® Mobile Antivirus for Windows Mobile Smartphone is the Smartphone version of Airscanner’s award winning anti-virus for the Pocket PC. Airscanner® is the world’s market leader in Windows Mobile security software. Our user base steadily grows by over 1,000 new users every day – almost entirely by word of mouth!"</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Kris-Airscanner-smavOptions.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />The final version or the gold code release of Airscanner Mobile Antivirus for Windows Mobile Smartphones is now available for download. This release resolves the installer errors seen by many in the previous <a href="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=44311">beta release.</a> The software is FREE for personal use. I am sure, once you get the software installed, you may want to test the virus scanner. ;-) Well to satisfy your curiosity, a <i>test virus</i> can be downloaded from <a href="http://eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm">here.</a> The test virus called Eicar is not a virus, but is actually an industry-wide standard text file for testing virus scanners. It will not infect other files or cause any havoc. Even though it is safe to run the scanner and download the test virus, I would <i><b>highly recommend</b></i> our readers to backup the Smartphone before doing so.

[Kris Kumar]

I was just trying to download and test out the software. And found that the link is broken. (looks like the web server is case sensitive and wants the .cab in the download link spelled as .CAB :? )

Here is the working link.
http://airscanner.com/downloads/smartphone/smavota.CAB

A little upset with the company, this is the second time I am having trouble with the installer. :-(

And here is the fun part. Anyone tried downloading the virus file. Well I tried and tried and tried, till I figured out - "I am stupid" :oops: I am trying to download a virus, and the McAfee scanner is preventing the download, cleaning up the zip file and the McAfee alert window was buried behind some other window. :-)

So you may have to turn of the desktop antivirus before you can download the dummy virus file.

[Kris Kumar]

Ran the scan, it took 2min 52secs to scan, tested 1812 files and found the test virus. Yahoo! :) Like the user interface.

One note: it did not find the virus when the test virus file was named as .com, but once I renamed it to .exe, it found the virus. I thought Windows Mobile supported .com extensions. Or maybe not. :?

[Airscanner]

Thanks Kris,

Thanks for catching the link!

You are correct: .com is not an executable extension on Windows Mobile, and therefore such a virus cannot infect you.

Take care,

Brad Barnes
Airscanner

[Kris Kumar]

I should have checked the download link before posting the story. ;-)

I like the user interface, simple and intutive. And impressed by the unique About box. Loved the way you have presented the info in the box. :-)

I have a few questions.
- Virus Signature Updates: I noticed that the option for check for updates is disabled. What is the update strategy.
- Are you planning on OTA updates. That would be cool. Let the customers specify their mobile numbers and you can send the update .CAB directly to the customers Smartphone.
- I did not notice any scheduler. Currently the scanner runs on demand, any plans to support a schedule?
- I did notice that it scans the message folders, but does it scan the attachments files or looks for only .EXEs.

Thanks

[ari]

Thanks Kris,

It will probably be updated soon to include an online scheduler built directly into the program. You will just need internet access (wifi or GSM/GPRS), similar to our Pocket PC scanner. Note that our PPC scanner includes real-time scanning of viruses, so there is no need for scheduled scanning; our smartphone might incorporate that feature soon -- although the technology is complex, it is probably not diffcult to port, since the two platforms are so similar. Our PPC scanner is also more granular: it also lets you choose exactly which filetypes you want scan; we may add this to the smartphone version.

A lot of how the AV evolves will depend on the threats. We'll just have to wait and see what the next generation (Smartphone) viruses show us. By the way, here is what we wrote about the last generation (Pocket PC):
http://informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=337069

Regards,

Ari

[Kris Kumar]

Thanks ari