First Trojan Horse Hits Palm Platform
According to McAfee Associates, a trojan horse has been discovered that affects users of Palm OS-based handheld devices, such as those from Palm, Handspring, IBM, TRG, and Sony. (A trojan horse is a program that hides malicious intent behind something that appears desirable. Unlike a virus, which most outlets have been calling this problem, a trojan spreads when a user deliberately installs it, thinking it’s something it isn’t.) The LibertyCrack trojan masquerades as a tool designed to defeat the shareware protection of the legitimate software “Liberty,” which lets Palm OS users run Nintendo GameBoy games. Instead, it attempts to delete all applications from the handheld. On a PalmOS handheld, the trojan will appear in the Applications launcher with the same icon as the “Liberty” application and the name “Crack 1.1.”