Viruses Come to PDAs

While computer viruses have been a widespread problem for PCs and an occasional nuissance for Macs, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants, Palms and PocketPC devices) have emerged largely unscathed up until now. But now, PCWorld is reporting that the first Virus for thw WindowsCE operating system has been found in the wild. This virus, dubbed Backdoor.WinCE.Brador.A or just "Brador", infects the operating system via a trojan horse (i.e. another program made to look like a normal, useful program but whose actual purpose is infection) and takes control of the PDA. The PDA then calls back to its creator (apparently a Russian hacker) and gives him/her/them the IP address of the PDA, which may allow them to take control of it.



So far, reaction to the virus has been muted. Only one documented case has been found, and the virus can not pass between PDAs. However, if you suspect that you have been infected, the only cure is to reinstall the WindowsCE operating system, which can be messy. As always, the lesson is to be VERY careful what you download from the internet and install onto your machine.