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It was only a matter of time before the first major virus aimed at Palm handhelds reared its handheld-crashing head. Or was it?

A recent Palm virus scare has antivirus software vendors scrambling to develop products that protect against malicious code aimed at personal digital assistants, mobile phones, and other wireless devices. (See "Destructive Palm Virus Discovered." )

But the problem today is a small one. Industry analysts say it could be 12 months or more before PDAs and cell phones are hit with the kind of crippling viruses that have brought PC networks to their knees. Their bare-bones operating systems make it harder to write viruses that spread automatically from one device to the next, analysts say, and most PDAs do not yet make use of wireless connections.

Nonetheless, both Palm and Microsoft plan to expand wireless features and capabilities in the Palm and Pocket PC platforms, and the number of data-enabled cell phones is expected to explode. Over the next year, the growth of these wirelessly connected PDAs and phones will increase the potential of a virus that can spread rapidly among devices, according to various industry analysts.

Antivirus vendors are pursuing several angles to protect phones and PDAs against malicious code. The devices' limited processing power and memory capacity, compared to that of desktop PCs, makes the challenge a tough one.

McAfee Goes Wireless

In August, Network Associates' McAfee division released McAfee VirusScan Wireless, a product designed primarily to guard corporate networks from viruses carried into work on PDAs by employees. The software, which works with the Palm OS, Windows CE, and EPOC, doesn't run on the device itself, but scans data and files as they are synchronized between the device and a PC. (See "McAfee Protects Your Network From Your PDA.")

Although it may prove a welcome line of defense for company tech managers, VirusScan Wireless doesn't protect you completely. You can still download viruses directly to your handheld device, either via the Web and e-mail, or through the infrared beaming feature on some PDAs.

Symantec Scans

Symantec claims its Symantec AntiVirus for the Palm OS is the first to scan for known Trojan horse viruses, worms, and other viruses on the device itself. Symantec rebuilt its Norton AntiVirus scanning engine from the ground up to develop the program, which was released in beta in September. Symmantec's AntiVirus for the Palm OS is less than 20KB in size, small enough to fit on just about any mobile phone or PDA, according to Carey Nachenberg, chief researcher at the Symantec AntiVirus Research Center. (See "Virus Protection Coming to Palm.")

F-Secure has developed a similar product for EPOC, an operating system designed primarily for mobile phones, that also runs on Psion PDAs. Called F-Secure Antivirus for EPOC, the application is available now and measures about 60KB in size, says a company spokesperson. (See "F-Secure Puts Virus Protection in Your Hand.")