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Android Antivirus: Is it really necessary?

drapacioli

drapacioli

Well-Known Member
I've seen many threads asking if antivirus is available for the android platform, but I haven't seen this discussed in detail yet, so:

Would you recommend antivirus to the average android user? By average user, I'm talking about someone who does not root their phone or install custom roms or anything that would potentially compromise the security of the OS. The way it seems to me is that it's like an antivirus for the mac: Not a requirement, but suggested to remain safe. Android has about as many viruses as Mac OS X (That means YES, there are viruses for both! A quick google search will confirm this), but considering how long the Android OS has been out and it's recent spike in market share, I would probably recommend it myself. However, the situation is in no way even close to that of Windows, where anyone not using antivirus software is simply asking for trouble.

Of course, not all people keep their phones stock. If you do install custom roms or root your phone, would an antivirus even help? After all, a windows antivirus is only effective as long as it remains up to date and you don't stupidly click on every little advertisement that looks shiny or has that product you suddenly realize you wanted. If you intentionally or even accidentally disable some security feature, you are inviting trouble. However, you also have more control over the phone, and could use that to your advantage. I don't have much experience with this, so I don't have an opinion.

Would a different android version affect your decision? For example, many phones are stuck on android 1.6 due to hardware limitations. How would your recommendation change if the phone in question was on 1.6, or 2.2, or any other version? People still running XP have more problems to deal with than Windows 7. Every new version of the Android OS has more security enhancements, making each one less prone to viruses, but it may also introduce new exploits.

Finally, what do you do? Do you have an antivirus yourself, or do you think yourself safe from what is out there? This is more a discussion than a recommendation for specific people, so I'd like to hear everybody's opinions as long as we play nice. I have an antivirus installed simply because I'd rather be safe than sorry. Would I be able to get a problem fixed if I go through my carrier? Probably. Do I want to go through all that trouble when a simple application can prevent it in the first place? Of course not.

What do you think?
 
It's actually been discussed a couple of times here. You don't need it. It's a waste of time, resources and (if you paid for it) money as well.
 
A.Nonymous is right.
Theoretically, viruses can spread in Android, if you have root and grant the virus root privileges. Or (but its not virus, just mallware), if you grant to same application rights to make phone calls and send SMS, read your phonebook and send it over internet. It's like on computer, there are still many people, who are little bit "not smart" and do such things.
 
It's a little more secure than a computer though because the malware has to flat out state, "I'm going to steal your contact information and send it over the Internet. Is that ok?" Then you have to give the malware the approval to do that. If you do that, you deserve what happens to you IMO.
 
A.Nonymous said:
It's a little more secure than a computer though because the malware has to flat out state, "I'm going to steal your contact information and send it over the Internet. Is that ok?" Then you have to give the malware the approval to do that. If you do that, you deserve what happens to you IMO.
Click to expand...

Which brings up the question of how do these antivirus programs even work? If you've granted those rights to a program, how and why would the AV stop it? Seems like a good way to break the functionality of an app... Maybe they just operate off a blacklist of scam programs to protect people who don't research apps from themselves?
 
Tangent said:
Which brings up the question of how do these antivirus programs even work? If you've granted those rights to a program, how and why would the AV stop it? Seems like a good way to break the functionality of an app... Maybe they just operate off a blacklist of scam programs to protect people who don't research apps from themselves?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how they would work. They could kill the app, but Android would just re-spawn it so you'd have that battery suck going on in the background. They couldn't firewall it without root access and I'd be reluctant to grant an anti-virus app root privileges. They couldn't just uninstall the app for the same reason. I have no idea what means they would use to warn you or stop the app from running.
 
A.Nonymous said:
I'm not sure how they would work. They could kill the app, but Android would just re-spawn it so you'd have that battery suck going on in the background. They couldn't firewall it without root access and I'd be reluctant to grant an anti-virus app root privileges. They couldn't just uninstall the app for the same reason. I have no idea what means they would use to warn you or stop the app from running.
Click to expand...
Maybe the question is, do they do anything?
 
wayrad said:
Maybe the question is, do they do anything?
Click to expand...
I believe they have a blacklist of apps that are known to be malicious and warn users against them. Needless to say it doesn't do much, but it is something, and it prevents the average user from stupidly giving the wrong program access to sensitive information. Agreed, they aren't very useful if you are smart enough to know what you are installing, and certainly not worth paying for at all.
 
So let me get this straight what your basically saying is no anti virus program is needed for android phones due to there O.S. is that correct
 
I like using Lookout, but not for the anti-virus features.

For 2.99 a month you get remote lock / remote wipe, plus the privacy advisor is pretty neato. Warns you of apps that have suspicious permissions should you have installed them without looking.

Plus being able to locate my phone from afar is pretty cool too.
 
Perhpas I simply don't understand things correctly, but if there truly cannot be viruses on android due to lack of root access, why haven't they done the same thing on desktop OSs such as Windows? I know they went with the whole asking the user if he/she wants things installed on Windows Vista/7. What I don't understand is how viruses get through at all then? Seems to me the same would apply to android, no? Is this just a case of people not having written the viruses for Android or is it truly immune?
 
Because prior to Windows 7 / Vista, all users had admin rights pretty much. So you could easily infect Windows machines. Android runs on linux, which is much more secure, all apps are sandboxed from each other, and root access is something that has to be explicitly given, not just granted. That makes it a lot more secure and harder to infect.
 
I don't believe anti virus software on Android is needed. I'll change my mind when I get a virus.

Considering I've used Windows for so many years without catching a virus, I doubt Android will get one.
 
While I respect the senior people on this forum, I am gravely concerned when people make a blanket comment that viruses, trojans, and other hacking tools cannot "infect" android phones since it is not impossible to create these for any OS. And, while Lord Doom may be correct that he or she has never had a machine or device infected with a virus, I can say that, in my experience, there are people that are unaware of cases where they have had their devices infected when the code is written well.

A virus can be written to attack close to the metal so no OS is completely safe.
 
It's interesting how in a few months time, the android community went from "android doesn't need antivirus" to "what's the best AV to install on my android phone".
 
The problem is that the AV apps out there cause more problems than not. You always have to rationally weigh the risk of infection versus the costs of loading the AV app. At this point it is an easy decision. Not worth it.
 
TheEngineer said:
The problem is that the AV apps out there cause more problems than not. You always have to rationally weigh the risk of infection versus the costs of loading the AV app. At this point it is an easy decision. Not worth it.
Click to expand...

Based on what? Have you actually used one and had issues with it or are you just repeating what others have said? I am now using lookout. It hasn't caused me any problems. It only scans when you download a new app, when you schedule it to run, or when you run a scan manually.
Outside of that, it just sits idle like any other app or widget.
Look at the screenshot, see how far down on the list lookout is with regard to how much cpu it's using.


657600625_photobucket_53529_.png
 
I think there are two questions people confuse here

1) Q: is Android secure?
A: In my opinion, yes, reasonably so and it's in the same ballpark as any other consumer OS including BB/WP7/iOS as well as the desktop OSes.

2) Is AV the needed/helpful?
A: Generally not. But if the user really doesn't want to know about how the digital world works, it may have a use.

But the real lasting solution is not AV. We dont buy sofware for people who are unwilling to learn how to drive, we dont buy software for people who are unwilling to vote.

There are some things society, especially geeks, need to push a bit harder on regular folks about.

And one of those is developing good security habits, and a good eye for scams.

The other, more technical part of the solution is to cut the damn telcos and hardware manufacturers out of the update process. These recent vulnerabilities were NOT caught by the AV companies but were already patched by Google for 2.2.2 Froyo and 2.3.3 Gingerbread.

So anyone who is running McAffee or Lookout or whatever, would not have been any safer than those that didn't.

So what can we do?

Don't buy locked phones from the manufacterurs and dont buy locked down phones on contract from the telcos. You arent saving any money anyways.

Buy vanila Android phones, or phones you can root and replace the ROM on. Those people running custom version of Gingerbread didnt get this virus because they were updated. Really the blame lies squarely with the telcos and manufacturers that lock the phones and are bad at updates (especially Sony, Moto and Samsung).
 
alostpacket said:
I think there are two questions people confuse here

1) Q: is Android secure?
A: In my opinion, yes, reasonably so and it's in the same ballpark as any other consumer OS including BB/WP7/iOS as well as the desktop OSes.

2) Is AV the needed/helpful?
A: Generally not. But if the user really doesn't want to know about how the digital world works, it may have a use.

But the real lasting solution is not AV. We dont buy sofware for people who are unwilling to learn how to drive, we dont buy software for people who are unwilling to vote.

There are some things society, especially geeks, need to push a bit harder on regular folks about.

And one of those is developing good security habits, and a good eye for scams.

The other, more technical part of the solution is to cut the damn telcos and hardware manufacturers out of the update process. These recent vulnerabilities were NOT caught by the AV companies but were already patched by Google for 2.2.2 Froyo and 2.3.3 Gingerbread.

So anyone who is running McAffee or Lookout or whatever, would not have been any safer than those that didn't.

So what can we do?

Don't buy locked phones from the manufacterurs and dont buy locked down phones on contract from the telcos. You arent saving any money anyways.

Buy vanila Android phones, or phones you can root and replace the ROM on. Those people running custom version of Gingerbread didnt get this virus because they were updated. Really the blame lies squarely with the telcos and manufacturers that lock the phones and are bad at updates (especially Sony, Moto and Samsung).
Click to expand...

That is not a true statement. Lookout security did in fact catch the spider man app as malicious according to an article I read yesterday.
The author stated he had that app and lookout warned him about it.

Google stated that if those apps caused any damage to your device, that they can remove the apps remotely but they cannot do anything about the damage already done by those apps.

Google needs to start scanning the apps before they allow them to hit their market.
 
pool_shark said:
That is not a true statement. Lookout security did in fact catch the spider man app as malicious according to an article I read yesterday.
The author stated he had that app and lookout warned him about it.

Google stated that if those apps caused any damage to your device, that they can remove the apps remotely but they cannot do anything about the damage already done by those apps.

Google needs to start scanning the apps before they allow them to hit their market.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I think that's incorrect -- would love a link to the article though.

Lookout updated their software after the discovery, which was made by some guy on reddit.

The Official Lookout Blog | Update: Security Alert: DroidDream Malware Found in Official Android Market

I don't begudge you the use of Lookout, they are very smart guys that know a ton about Android security, and their software has other nice features -- but AV is inherrently reactionary wherin lies the problem.

If lookout really had detected this, they would have gone on a PR blitz to show how needed their software is.
 
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