Are there Maemo viruses? Is anti-virus software available or necessary?
 

Internet, email .... not virus free
Anyone knows of Anti Virus program to use or not necessary for the 770 ?

Thanks !

Not necessary at all. There are, for all intents and purposes, 0 in-the-wild viruses for Linux. The risk is even lower on an ARM processor rather than x86.

anti virus can be usefull for mail scan. virus are for windows but we receive them :p
clamav is a linux anti virus. Maybe someone will port to maemo... But the interest is low...

Virus risks?
 

I have been downloading & installing several apps. I just now realized there is no virus protection. Are we at risk or am I being silly?

I'd say there is no risk. There ain't nearly as much viruses for Linux as is for example for Windows. Also amount of N770s around the world is still quite limited, so I don't think anyone will be interested in writing viruses for it. At least yet.

I agree that there is only minimal risk for the 770 to be infected by viruses.

The risk of "malware" attacking the Opera browser is far worse. When I tried a few of the tests which are available at http://www.heise.de/security/dienste/browsercheck I found some vulnerabilites of the 770's Opera browser. For instance phishing with frames (frame spoofing) to name only one.

Maybe we should install a CERT forum for the 770 ;)

The nature of this device just struck me this morning as I quickly opened up a bunch of Slashdot articles on the bus while stopped at a red light. (Thank you Sports Rehab Clinic IT staff.)

The 770 is a little tramp! Just wandering I've been connected to about 9 foreign accesspoints. Thank #$&*#*& this thing is running linux, imagine practicing the same whorish behaviour with an OQO. I wonder what the meantime before complete destruction is for an install on that providing the user is being promiscuous with access points.

Z'actly
 

Imagine the confusion a virus would feel..

A what? Quit pokin' me there. Never seen that interrupt. Man ! This processor is TOTALLY WRONG ENDIAN !! Filesystem? Where's my Filesystem? It looks like Linux but so many empty directories !!! What to do ?? What to do ?? This place is coyote ugly ! What did I do last night?

Re: Virus risks?
 

Now that there is more Nokia Tablets around is there a higher risk of getting a virus or spyware? I would hate if a keylogger was installed on my tablet and latter I find out some hacker has access to all my passwords...

Re: Virus risks?
 

AFAIK there are no known viruses for Linux in the wild, and certainly none for Linux on ARM. That being said malicious sites could possibly take advantage of any (potential) bugs in the gecko rendering engine (which is cross platform). And of course there is always the risk of someone writing malicious software. Just make sure you trust anyone who you are downloading software from and that last problem will take care of itself. Also, check MD5sums on files that you find on mirrors.

-John