Eset plans anti-virus software for Symbian smartphones

Security software developer Eset has demonstrated an early version of its anti-virus software for Symbian smartphones to Computeractive.

The company already sells a mobile anti-virus application for Windows Mobile devices, but Symbian is used by many more handsets around the world, such as those made by Nokia.

The software is designed to be as small and streamlined as possible, which is important on smartphones where system resources are limited. The menu-driven interface looks almost identical to that used in the Windows Mobile version of the software, although some features weren’t included in the beta version.

Eset plans to add a firewall and the ability to remotely wipe your mobile if it’s stolen, but confirmed the Symbian version of its anti-virus application will not include an SMS spam filter, which is present in the Windows Mobile version.

The company also announced an anti-virus application for Apple Macintosh computers, although this is in the early stages of development and not yet ready for demonstration.

Despite the new products, the company acknowledges that, although a handful of Macintosh and smartphone viruses do exist, Windows PCs are likely to remain the number one target for malware and hacking attempts, most of which are now motivated by a desire for financial gain.

Hackers attempt to maximise the impact of their attempts by choosing the most popular platform, but smartphones account for a mere 10 per cent of handsets used worldwide.

The remaining 90 per cent are simpler phones, without the ability to read email or surf the web, and are therefore less likely to contain the information that hackers and malware authors want to steal.

For more information on mobile security, see Microsoft's bi-yearly security intelligence report.