anti-virus

[android4life007]

Webroot Secure Anywhere also tries to STOP you from navigating to shady web sites that are known to harbor viruses/malware etc. These web pages were not obvious scams to me either so IMO AV on my phone and Tablet is just as important as on my PC and I will never go without one on any of my devices

 

[lizards4444]

I'm going to get trend micro, just cause my copy for pc came with a free one for android

From my thumbs to your screen courtesy of tapatalk

 

[alexdavid]

Loving my nexus 7, my question is what anti-virus program r u ladies and gentleman running? I was going to get avg just like on my HTC one x. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Well if you don't download apps or games and stuff from third parties then u don't need any antivirus or anti spyware in case you download stuff from third parties you shoud get av try Appriva cloud antivirus its on play store and its free using it too

 

[B. Diddy]

I have found from direct comparison that Avast eats up significantly more battery than Lookout. Lookout seems to be fairly lightweight, and only slows the system down briefly when scanning a newly downloaded file or installed app. I always turn off the scheduled scans (which can slow the system down) because I figure that if the apps were already scanned when they were installed, there isn't much need to schedule regular scans as well. Apart from that, Lookout also has some nice features like Lock Cam (which will take a picture of whoever fails at unlocking your phone 3 times, then email that picture to you), Signal Flare (which will tell you its last known location before the battery runs out), and other typical features like Find My Device and Backup.

 

[npark2012]

To the original poster:

Please do not listen to those people that tell you that anti virus programs are useless. Yes I agree with them to use common sense. But one can not simply rely on common sense alone. And to those people that say they've never had a virus on their android phone, there are only 2 suggestions, either they really didn't have a virus or they had a virus but never noticed. Which comes to my point that more sophisticated, and more dangerous, are those that are undetectable with the naked eye. By installing a well known and trusted anti virus program, you can at least have a fighting chance to expose those secret viruses. Yes they do suck up battery but to me honestly isn't very noticeable. Installing an anti virus is EXACTLY like buying car insurance. The car insurance is there just in CASE. An anti virus program is there JUST IN CASE. You'll never notice you have the anti virus running unless there's a little icon on the notification bar... but nonetheless.

I personally use the Avast! anti virus program. And also just a side note, many of those people that don't have an AV installed and never got a virus is probably due to the fact that virus/malware for android is JUST beginning to emerge. And please keep in mind, bad apps HAVE infiltrated the Play store. And thousands of people downloaded that app before it was taken down. So nothing is safe from hackers. Whether it be iOS, Android, Windows, whatever. That's a FACT.

To MINIMIZE (not eliminate) your risk of catching a virus/malware on your phone is this:
1.) install an anti virus program.
2.) Use common sense
3.) Download apps that are from trusted, generally safe markets like Amazon and Play store.
4.) Only download apps that have a high number of downloads and lots of comments. Generally an app is considered safe if it's surpassed over 1 million downloads.
5.) Read the comments, not just the 3 that's shown (Play store) but read the rest of the comments, they will give hints and clues if it's a malicious app.
6.) If you can, try getting apps that are ad free.
7.) Don't do anything else to your phone i.e. Rooting, etc. For security reasons not rooting is more favorable.
8.) Don't make a very skilled hacker angry.

Do all those and you will have a very slim chance of catching a malicious app.

And as always, better safe than sorry.

 

[fyrfyter]

Re: Why anti-virus not needed?

May I ask why you say this? They used to say this about Apple Computers, maybe they still do.

Forgive my newbie ignorance, but I honestly don't understand why anti-virus protection is not needed for an Android OS when, say, it's needed on a computer.

Thank you.

I wont say it doesn't have its place, but it isn't as functionally useful, since someone has to actually write a virus to work in the Android OS. People write viruses for Mac and Windows because that is what everyone uses for a desktop OS, so if you want to infect everything possible, you would write it for the OS you are interested in. That is why every desktop needs antivirus/antimalware software.

For the record, I use TrustGo. I do a fair amount of Beta testing for various programs and would rather be safe than sorry. I also like Trust Go's backup features, and hey its free. It also has the best scores from AV-TEST (A 3rd party tester for AV Software. If you want to see where any software ranks, go here AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute: Jan 2013 )

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

As a person who has worked in IT security for quite a while, I will add this:

Most AV applications work by:
1. monitoring current activity on the device (file downloads, application install, access to system, permission rights requested, etc)
2. scanning existing files and processes for potential threats

In theory, that should keep you protected, however the reality of it is that in order an AV application to detect a threat, it first has to be able to recognize it. Most AV software will update it's definitions regularly, but the attackers will always be one step ahead, and new threads will often get right past AV detection. The other thing to be aware of is that in many cases, even if the AV engine does detect a threat, there's a good chance damage has already been done. While AV software will attempt to delete and/or quarantine infected files, well written code often find ways to protect itself from common AV removal methods. When asked, I generally tell my friends, "Anti-virus software does a great job of letting you know you already have a virus -- but that doesn't always mean it is able to get rid of it".

My point -- if you want to install AV software, then fine, I don't know if it's necessary or not (I don't use it on Android myself), but if it's not hurting anything then why not? Even if all it is good for is detection, that is still valuable information to have, should you actually encounter malware. The more important thing is though that using AV should NEVER be an excuse to not remain vigilant about what gets downloaded to or installed on your device. When installing apps, stick with apps from well-know developers, check reviews and permissions requests, and finally, just use common sense -- anything that seems too good to be true (i.e. "this app will print free money for you! try it now!") probably is.

To MINIMIZE (not eliminate) your risk of catching a virus/malware on your phone is this:
1.) install an anti virus program. See my comment above. I don't advise against it, but in reality, probably not #1 when it comes to keeping your device malware free.
2.) Use common sense I'd put this at number 1
3.) Download apps that are from trusted, generally safe markets like Amazon and Play store.
4.) Only download apps that have a high number of downloads and lots of comments. Generally an app is considered safe if it's surpassed over 1 million downloads.
5.) Read the comments, not just the 3 that's shown (Play store) but read the rest of the comments, they will give hints and clues if it's a malicious app.
6.) If you can, try getting apps that are ad free. Good advice I suppose, but for the most part the ads in and of themselves are nothing more than an annoyance...if you do need to use ad supported software, just don't click on the ads.
7.) Don't do anything else to your phone i.e. Rooting, etc. For security reasons not rooting is more favorable. Disagree with this. Almost all rooted ROMS require the use of a "superuser" app, which in some ways actually makes rooted phones more secure. The exploit used to root the phone in the first place is patched and access to system requires user interaction.
8.) Don't make a very skilled hacker angry. Not sure how the average person would do this -- but yeah, don't do that!

Do all those and you will have a very slim chance of catching a malicious app.

And as always, better safe than sorry.

Not trying to say the quoted poster above was wrong about anything (except maybe the root comment), but just wanted to add my own input.

For the sake of this post, the term "device" could be substituted for "phone", "tablet", "PC", "Mac", etc... any personal computing device.

 

[npark2012]

As a person who has worked in IT security for quite a while, I will add this:

Most AV applications work by:
1. monitoring current activity on the device (file downloads, application install, access to system, permission rights requested, etc)
2. scanning existing files and processes for potential threats

In theory, that should keep you protected, however the reality of it is that in order an AV application to detect a threat, it first has to be able to recognize it. Most AV software will update it's definitions regularly, but the attackers will always be one step ahead, and new threads will often get right past AV detection. The other thing to be aware of is that in many cases, even if the AV engine does detect a threat, there's a good chance damage has already been done. While AV software will attempt to delete and/or quarantine infected files, well written code often find ways to protect itself from common AV removal methods. When asked, I generally tell my friends, "Anti-virus software does a great job of letting you know you already have a virus -- but that doesn't always mean it is able to get rid of it".

My point -- if you want to install AV software, then fine, I don't know if it's necessary or not (I don't use it on Android myself), but if it's not hurting anything then why not? Even if all it is good for is detection, that is still valuable information to have, should you actually encounter malware. The more important thing is though that using AV should NEVER be an excuse to not remain vigilant about what gets downloaded to or installed on your device. When installing apps, stick with apps from well-know developers, check reviews and permissions requests, and finally, just use common sense -- anything that seems too good to be true (i.e. "this app will print free money for you! try it now!") probably is.



Not trying to say the quoted poster above was wrong about anything (except maybe the root comment), but just wanted to add my own input.

For the sake of this post, the term "device" could be substituted for "phone", "tablet", "PC", "Mac", etc... any personal computing device.

Just an FYI, the list is in no particular order. And thanks for your input!

 

[blakes278]

I would definitely go with Avast!, it is a great anti virus program and one of the best,
I have been using it for a while now and have no problems or complaints about it.
Oh and its free!!