Android Antivirus Comparison 03-2012

[t_wilson]

I thought to create a thread with links to this antivirus comparison hoping that most people could see it, specially since some of the apps covered are labeled as fakes and do not offer any protection. Even though there are different opinions as to whether or not we need an antivirus app on our phones, the fact that there are so many of them available on the market is food for thought.

I myself I'm on the fence on this right now, but I worry that Android is becoming the MS Windows of the mobile world.

Report Uncovers Fake Android AntiVirus Apps

http://www.av-test.org/fileadmin/pdf/avtest_2012-02_android_anti-malware_report_english.pdf

 

[iwantbruce]

I keep lookout 'free' going, tried and scanned with AVG and one other free AV app. None of these have ever detected a problem. I just used Avast, and I like it! Had it scan my 16gb sd card (where I keep all my backed up apps, keep most uninstalled until I want to use/play 'em), and it came up with "4 problems". It defined them as PUP = Potentially Unwanted Program. 'Tiki Golf 3d Free' & 'Running Fighter'. Both were said to have "Android;Plangton-A" as the problem. I hit the "Clear Problem" red button, and Avast took them off, nice as you please. No other AV app has ever detected any problem. My layman computer sense tells me this one's a keeper. It checks things like root and other things that
are beyond my (3 months+ owning a) smartphone knowledge.

 

[iwantbruce]

Forgot to mention, I have unrooted Optimus V, use 'Android Assistant+18' to backup apps (this keeps limited memory OV running fast, un-bogged down with unused installed apps, but keeps me from having to search/re-download them.) Question: Does anyone know of an app that would alert me to a force-bluetooth attack? Or one that disables the bluetooth function entirely? Thanks.

 

[tli]

... I just used Avast, ..., and it came up with "4 problems". It defined them as PUP = Potentially Unwanted Program. 'Tiki Golf 3d Free' & 'Running Fighter'. Both were said to have "Android;Plangton-A" as the problem. I hit the "Clear Problem" red button, and Avast took them off, ...

The key word here is Potentially... Avast might be more aggressive in it's definitions of PUPs compared with other AV scanners. In my case, Avast also flagged GingerBreak v1.20 as a PUP, which I'd used to root my OV. Instead of removing it, I reported this as a potentially false alarm back to Avast. In spite of the potentially more false alarms, I too preferred Avast over other AV apps, and I'd replaced the Lookout app that I was using previously with Avast now. I especially liked Avast's design and implementation of their anti-theft recovery features--way better than anything else I've tried to date.