Yet what some would praise as foresight, others are criticising as overly fierce marketing. In fact, the flood of new software has several security researchers arguing that the antivirus companies are hyping what is currently a minimal threat and that the software, rather than helping, is highlighting insecurities in the devices.
"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.
The problem, he said, is that no truly dangerous virus or Trojan horse has yet been created for mobile devices, making antivirus software for them simply protection for the paranoid.
"It's putting the cart before the horse," Thompson said.
The situation underscores the schizophrenic relationship antivirus software makers have with the threats they protect against: Too many warnings lead critics to accuse the companies of hyping the issue; too few warnings and companies risk being seen as dropping the ball.
Some security experts say the antivirus companies are leaning toward hype. In March, three major software makers released virus protection for the Palm OS-based personal digital assistants (PDAs) and other devices, declaring that mobile and wireless devices would soon become the newest front in the war on malicious code.
"PDAs are no longer immune to security threats," Risto Siilasmaa, CEO of Helsinki-based antivirus software maker F-Secure, said March 7 in a statement announcing the release of his company's antivirus software. "There's no way to predict when the next virus will occur."
Worst-case scenario
The worst threat: Once handhelds are connected to the wireless Internet, viruses--and their cousins, worms--could quickly spread throughout a large number of devices.
Network Associates called viruses and Trojan horses an "emerging security threat" to mobile devices in its release earlier this month announcing its second component of antivirus software to protect Palm, Windows and EPOC devices earlier. Symantec has heralded handhelds as "increasingly at risk" and plans to release its own protection for Palms later this month.
At present, however, only a handful of digital viruses have targeted handhelds.
In August, Palm owners had to watch out for the Liberty Crack Trojan, a program advertised as a way to circumvent--or crack--the popular Liberty program for playing Nintendo Game Boy titles on the Palm.
A month later, researchers at two antivirus companies discovered the first virus, called Phage 1.0, that infects programs on Palm devices. The virus would infect all the programs on a Palm whenever the infected program ran.
Smart phones--which combine cell phones with handheld functions--and mobile email are in the sights of virus writers as well. Last June, Timofonica, a variant of the LoveLetter virus, spammed thousands of mobile phone owners in Spain by routing emails through an Internet-to-cellular gateway. In Japan, a Trojan horse that appeared on I-mode phones caused the devices to dial the country's emergency-services number.
Those viruses largely failed. Yet people are still worried, said antivirus company Central Command, which released its own protection in December for handhelds that use the Palm or Windows CE/Pocket PC operating system.
The company surveyed more than 3,000 people and found that almost no handheld owners used antivirus protection, even though 81 percent stated that they worried about future viruses that could infect their mobile devices.
