To avoid the proliferation of viruses and worms that have infected PCs, Symantec is developing an anti-virus technology for Palm OS® platform. At present, there are no known computer viruses, worms or Trojan horse threats targeting handhelds, but it is Symantec’s belief that the Palm OS could be susceptible to malicious code since its runs a wide variety of programs.

The company has re-engineered its anti-virus technologies to run on handheld computers and other mobile applications. Symantec anti-virus prototype technology uses a micro-engine to enable researchers at Symantec Anti Virus Research Center to detect potential threats on Palm OS platform. Due to the smaller memory and storage requirements on handhelds, Symantec is also investigating methods to leverage heuristics and other more advanced non-fingerprint-based technologies to eliminate the dependence on the larger virus definitions in today’s anti-virus products.