droid noob with security concerns

[nanoroboto]

Hello Everyone,

I purchased my first droid smartphone last night (the incredible for vzw) so it seemed like a smart move to join the forum. I think my biggest concern before having even used the thing (it's set to arrive by Friday) is security when I'm on a public wifi spot. If I'm at an airport checking my email, what is my exposure...are there security apps.

Please help this late adopter (and his wife...yes we bought one and got one free!)

NR

 

[Martimus]

Welcome to the Android Forums!

Think of your smartphone is a glorified handheld PC. In a number of senses this really is what the smartphone has become.

Wireless security can be managed by using the security features inherent in the wireless access points. If you connect to a free wifi hotspot, however, there typically isn't a lot of built-in security. What I typically recommend to people is to use at a minimum is WPA2 AES encryption whenever possible. Others will recommend MAC address filtering but this isn't typically possible in a public environment.

Anti-Virus is not yet a big problem with Android devices as there's only a few known Android exploits. When doing financial or e-commerce transactions, however, always make sure that you are using SSL encryption.

 

[Timjdub22]

Of course you're able to get a virus. I had a palm pixi with no installed apps and when i went to go put a pic on my computer from my phone, my compiter wouldn't install the phone, instead it said a trojan virus was recognized and wouldn't let me open files. Make sure you can't accept files from unknown sources, it should be in your settings