Mobile antivirus researchers and antivirus companies are at loggerheads over access to code for a PC-to-mobile Trojan.
The Mobile Antivirus Researchers Association (MARA) said that it had received proof-of-concept code last week for Crossover, which MARA claims is malicious software that can jump from a Windows desktop machine to a Windows Mobile Pocket PC handheld.
Antivirus companies and researchers usually collaborate by sharing code with competitors. This reciprocal arrangement seems to have broken down on this occasion, with several major antivirus companies, including Sophos and McAfee, complaining that they don’t yet have access to the code.
MARA researchers said that some antivirus companies had attempted to “bully” the code out of them, while the antivirus companies say they aren’t prepared to comply with the conditions that MARA wants to impose on them before they get access to the code for Crossover.
