Do Anti-Virus Apps Cause Viruses?

In March, three different companies released applications that protect Palm handhelds from viruses. The problem is, there aren't very many viruses to protect them from. Several experts have begun to claim that these are at best a waste of people's money and at worst a challenge to virus writers.

Bruce Walton, a managing director of antivirus firm Command, believes that no virus poses a risk to handhelds and claims that the development of security software for them could "pre-warn virus authors or show them a way to do malicious code".

There is also the possibility that media hype over handheld viruses and other malicious code will start people thinking about creating them. There is some evidence to support this. Just a month after the huge furor over the Liberty trojan horse made headlines all over the world, virus experts discovered the first Palm virus, Phage 1.0.

"I wouldn't say that they advertised (mobile-device viruses) into existence, but there is little to be gained when you have detection for a platform without any (damaging) viruses," said Roger Thompson, technical director of malicious code research for security services company TruSecure.

Developers of the anti-virus applications say that handheld viruses are inevitable and they are just being prepared. Risto Siilasmaa, CEO of Helsinki-based antivirus software maker F-Secure, said "PDAs are no longer immune to security threats. There's no way to predict when the next virus will occur."

Jack Clark of Network Associates argues that antivirus software for handhelds responds proactively to the problem and "closes the door on the threat before it occurs".

There is no way to know if the threat of anti-virus apps has already kept malicious code from being developed.

There is an old joke about a man who carries a oddly shaped stick around. One day a co-worker asks what it is, and he says, "This is my polar bear repeller. It protects me from polar bears." The other man says, "There's no polar bears for thousands of miles!" The man responds, "See? It's working."

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We need some new clichés...

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/21/2001 9:54:25 AM #
...erm... cure is better than prevention... that's like shuttiing the barn door before the horse has bolted?

When someone build a new car, the statistics about that car in particular will show that not a single one has been stolen. So why bother with an imobilizer or car alarm? Isn't that encouraging people to find ways around imbolizers and car alarms?

Granted, no known current virus causes major problems for PalmOS devices - but as the platofrm becomes more widespread they will appear. There's not much prestige for the 'hacker elite' in hacking or creating a virus for an obscure system used by only a few people in a non-connected way. However, as these devices become inreasingly pervasive and connected, viruses will become more common and more dangerous.

We haven't even seen any true viruses that spread themselves device-to-device... but with improved connectivity and the boom of peer-2-peer applications they are going to appear; and they're going to appear whether anti-virus software exists or not.

The anti-virus companies have years of experience of identifying and dealing with viruses and some of that knowledge must transfer to mobile devices (which in many cases are like the desktop computers of 7 or 8 years ago) and so these anti-virus programs should be able to pre-empt many attacks and quickly repsond to new attacks as they appear, in the same way desktop systems work.

Having an odly shaped stick that claims to repell polar bears... yeah it's funny (although the Lisa and Homer Simpson version was funnier), but if you've just moved to polar-bear country and all the locals carry s special whistle that repells polar bear just in-case... you'd be silly not to follow suit.

So if you've just moved into mobile computing, and all other types of computers are protected by anti-virus systems... I'd suggest protecting yourself too.

Finally, just remember that writing an application that will freeze your Palm even after a reset takes just a few lines of code (and that's nicely laid out code :-). Unless you know how to perform developer resets you would have to hard reset your Palm, losing any information since your last HotSync. And even then the application would be 'restored' to your Palm, along with all your other applications, to wreak havok again. You'd better know which application is causing the problem... and know how to stop it being restored to you Palm...

Cheers
Russell

russ@russb.fsnet.co.uk



All your bugs are MS

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/21/2001 10:53:24 AM #
The No. 1 reason we have so many Viruses to contend with is the "beautification and automation" applied to what started out as, and should have remained as, Plain Text - email!

We have MicroSoft to thank for this, not the AntiVirus vendors.

This week I received a bCentral announcement email that was not only chuck full of html, but included an ASP module as well. WTF!!!



RE: All your bugs are MS
superbenk @ 3/21/2001 12:30:22 PM #
A little afraid of progress are you? Most email clients as well as email servers have the ability to block HTML content in an email if preferred or at least convert it to plain text. There is also usually the ability to block or strip attachments. So either you are talking ignorantly about something you know little about or you are contradicting yourself by using the very tools you profess are ruining everything. Make up your mind.

I for one appreciate having the ability to add power, functionality and aesthetics to my email. I enjoy making it mine and if applicable I appreciate the ability to make it do more than a fast paper letter.

Welcome to progress. As far as your statement about Microsoft, if they are so horrible, why does every other email program/client I have seen offer support for HTML content in emails???? Hmmm....

RE: All your bugs are MS
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/21/2001 1:00:42 PM #
I am neither ignorant nor contradicting myself.
I do use an email package with Plain Text options.

So many other email clients have hopped on the bandwagon. This does not make it a good thing. (VHS/Beta)...

I am simply of the clan that believes that it should remain a bastion of text. email is a cross platform communication which can and is sent to and from phones, pagers, pda's, mainframes, etc. The majority of avenues for email in its' travels are unable to your pretty fonts and backgrounds and even if they could, bandwidth is often still at a premium.

Also, I never said that MicroSoft was horrible. I make my living by MS products. Rather, I simply identified MS as the perpetrator of this particular ill.

Coherent replies welcomed...


Intersting fact about good old command

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/22/2001 5:55:44 AM #
Just a while ago the Command was selling their own Palm AV for $10

It had outstanding features, like recognizing Liberty trojan by filename!

So I'll find it rather amusing that they are now blaming other AV vendors
for marketing a Palm AV product. As they were one of the first to push
their version.

Jarno.

nah

sinbad @ 3/22/2001 7:36:26 PM #
they may create an atomsphere where someone may wish to do damage, but they don't cause em.
Been thinkin of getting McAffee's as a safety, .....:)]

HTML&Viruses

Otis Nemo @ 3/23/2001 3:23:44 PM #
HTML cannot carry viruses - the viruses spread in rich text email are carried either by scripts (e.g., VBScript) or are in objects. Pure HTML is perfectly safe - it's scripts & objects that should be excluded from email.
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