Vesselin Bontchev ( Iceland )
Virus Researcher
FRISK Software International

As Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)—and especially wireless PDAs and smart phones—are becoming increasingly popular, the malware authors are starting targeting them. Currently, they mostly target the devices running Symbian OS—dozens of viruses and Trojan horses exist for them, since these devices cover the majority (about 60%) of the market. However, malware exists for the other two popular operating systems too—Windows Mobile and Palm OS. This paper examines Palm OS as a platform for various kinds of malware. It explains what viral methods are possible and likely to become successful, as well as the challenges faced by the developers of anti–virus software for this platform.

Dr. Vesselin Bontchev graduated from the Technical University of Sofia in 1985 with an M.Sc. in computer science. He worked for the university's Laboratory for Microprocessors and Microcomputers and for the Institute of Industrial Cybernetics and Robotics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, building expert systems. In 1988, he became interested in computer viruses. producing freeware anti-virus programs. Two years later he became the Director of the Laboratory of Computer Virology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. From 1991 to 1995 he worked as a research associate at the Virus Test Center, University of Hamburg, Germany, where he wrote his Ph.D. thesis on computer viruses.

Since 1990, Dr. Bontchev has been the Bulgarian representative in IFIP's TC-11 ("Computers & Security"). He is also the founding member of CARO (the Computer Anti-virus Researchers' Organization). a founding member of VSI (the Virus Security Institute), and a member of EICAR (the European Institute for Computer Anti-virus Research.

Dr. Bontchev currently works for FRISK Software International in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he is involved in the development of the anti-virus package F-PROT. Outside the field of computer anti-virus research, his interests include cryptography and number theory.