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Amid reports of Trojans and worms squirming through mobile devices, Trend Micro Inc. says it will roll out anti-virus and anti-spam protection for users of data-centric smart phones.
The companys Trend Micro Mobile Security suite, which is available for free through June 30, 2005, will provide automatic, real-time scanning to protect wireless devices against malicious code and viruses on the Web or hidden inside files.
Todd Thiemann, director of device security marketing at Trend Micro, told eWEEK.com the service will be marketed to mobile carriers and enterprise customers.
The virus scan engine will offer immediate support for the Microsoft Windows Mobile for Smartphone 2003, with plans in place to support the Symbian OS v7.0 early next year.
Thiemann said full support for the Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 PocketPC platform (Phone Edition) and Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition will also roll out in January 2005.
There are no plans to support data-centric devices sold by Research In Motion Ltd. (BlackBerry) or PalmOne Inc. (Treo).
Trend Micro, a Japanese firm with U.S. headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., sells enterprise-facing anti-virus and Internet security software. The company previously dabbled in securing mobile devices with a wireless version of the PC-cillin scan engine, but Thiemann said the new product suite is a “new, ground-up” offering with an enhanced feature set.
He said the recent discovery of the“Skulls” Trojan dumping the Cabir worm on Symbian OS devices was the first sign that malicious virus writers were targeting data-centric devices.
“Were all expecting something really dangerous to arrive soon. The proof-of-concept exploits are already out there, so we know theyre capable of infecting the devices,” Thiemann added.
Trend Micro isnt the first to roll out anti-virus protection for smart phones. Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc. have signed partnership pacts with mobile carriers to integrate on-device virus protection into service plans.
Companies such as F-Secure Corp. and Airscanner Corp. also offer virus protection on some data-centric devices.
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