As the realm of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), personal computers and cell phones begin to merge, a new field may be opening for virus writers.

Viruses such as Internet worms, Trojan horses and others that have plagued the computer world for several years may be headed into cellular technology, according to an Associated Press story earlier this month.

However, those who use cell phones to check e-mail are only partially at risk, said Steve Russell, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

“We get confused about what the role of the phone and the computer is,” Russell said. “We start thinking that the phone is surfing the Internet, when in fact it is the computer inside the phone that’s surfing the Internet and the phone is just providing the wireless connection.”

Despite the relative safety of the phone’s internal system to computer viruses, the computer software within the phone is at risk to virtually all the cyber-attacks of surfing from a home computer.

Viruses like “timofonica,” have infected computers as well as cell phones in Spain through short messaging services, which allow cell phones to receive text messages.

With Internet security giants like Symantec already developing software for palm PDAs, the ever-necessary cell phone may be in need of protection in the near future.

“If you look at the history, virus writers look at the vices that are accepted by a high number of users,” Symantec spokesperson Mike Bradshaw said.

“Virus writers tend to create viruses for the masses. We see [cell phones] as the next frontier for virus writers to exploit.”

New viruses targeted at cell phones may e-mail the phone’s address book to telemarketing firms, crash calendars, contact lists and other files – many pranks already common to computers. However, traditional viruses, as of now, cannot infect cell phones and make calls.

“As soon as you use the phone to access the Internet, then the software that’s used in the phone plays the role of the Internet software on your computer, and that’s hackable,” Russell said.

“It’s quite conceivable that they could figure out a way to hack your cell phone and get your personal files, but it couldn’t be used to make prank calls to other people or make free calls on someone else’s service.”