Unlike a diary or note book, PDAs could soon pose a threat to network security. Computer Associates is the first company to fight Palm viruses in Australia.
InoculateIt is the latest product from the global company and it claims to protect the Palm Operating System (OS) from all known malicious attacks on the PDA platform. Developers at Computer Associates Melbourne labs say it shields from Palm OS.Liberty.A, Phage.A and Vapor A. "It is critical that users manage the security and integrity of this platform," says Jerry Jalaba, vice president of Enterprise and Government at Computer Associates.
Computer Associates claim that the simplified OS will make it venerable to attacks, "The undesirable elements of the cracker community will target new platforms and applications in an attempt to spread further havoc," says Jalaba.
But network security consultant MIS Corporate Defense Solutions has not noticed a major threat yet. "The few instances of PDA virus that have been seen require the user to install the infected program via the sync application onto the device. They then will infect other applications on the device. The only remedy is to re-set the device and re-install all third party applications," says Wayne Sowery of MIS.
MIS believe that threats are going to be a problem though for the Palms, "The real threat is the future; when devices are synchronised via Ethernet or other network based methods. This allows the device to have full access not only to the local LAN, but also to the Internet if the organisation has a routed Internet connection," Sowery says.
The British consultancy points to further problems coming from Windows CE. "Another possible threat is the integration of Windows CE devices, where the host PC can browse the file system of the PDA, this would allow rogue desktop applications to make modifications to the files on the PDA without the knowledge of the user," he said.
As yet there have been no reported network intrusions as a result of a Filofax virus.
