Could anybody give me a list of good antivirus apps and malware removers for my Sony Xperia Z1?And by good I mean that it needs to have the feature that prevents the phone from being redirected or accessing dangerous or false links that could infect your phone or steal your data.No McAfee because I already have it and it's going to expire so I need something almost like it or better that's also free.Thank you!
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Good malware removers and antivirus apps
- Thread starter EpicRazzy
- Start date
Here's my list of good antivirus/anti-malware apps.
I have never seen Android malware in the wild. While I'm sure it exists, especially in the gray markets, user diligence is the most effective form of protection. Now, to answer your question, here are some recent test results for Android A/V apps. The general consensus is that the free ones are as effective as the paid apps, so don't waste your money, if you intend to use it.
What you also need to understand is that everything on an Android device runs in it's own protected space and while an A/V app can detect and notify you, it can't automatically remove it. So, if you get any malware, unless you've been installing apps from questionable locations, the only way you are going to get malware is through social engineering and there really isn't anything that's going to protect you from yourself.
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I have never seen Android malware in the wild. While I'm sure it exists, especially in the gray markets, user diligence is the most effective form of protection. Now, to answer your question, here are some recent test results for Android A/V apps. The general consensus is that the free ones are as effective as the paid apps, so don't waste your money, if you intend to use it.
What you also need to understand is that everything on an Android device runs in it's own protected space and while an A/V app can detect and notify you, it can't automatically remove it. So, if you get any malware, unless you've been installing apps from questionable locations, the only way you are going to get malware is through social engineering and there really isn't anything that's going to protect you from yourself.
Rukbat
Extreme Android User
Malwarebytes Anti Malware is probably the best anti-malware product, and has been for years.
As far as anti-virus programs, they recognize viruses by patterns (viruses don't look any different than any other app, code-wise), so the A-V programs have data files full of patterns by which they can spot a virus. If a virus comes out before you get the data file update with the pattern of that virus, you have no protection. So which one is best? The one that you got the update for before you got the virus. Most of the "big name" AV products are about equally "good" - AVG, Avast. Lookout, Avira ...
(There's a difference between adware, malware, viruses, Trojans, phishing ... learn the differences if you want to be protected. The best anti-virus program won't protect you against a phishing scheme.)
Long lesson about viruses and malware.
tl;dr It's up to you, not some program, to prevent your computers from becoming infected.
As far as anti-virus programs, they recognize viruses by patterns (viruses don't look any different than any other app, code-wise), so the A-V programs have data files full of patterns by which they can spot a virus. If a virus comes out before you get the data file update with the pattern of that virus, you have no protection. So which one is best? The one that you got the update for before you got the virus. Most of the "big name" AV products are about equally "good" - AVG, Avast. Lookout, Avira ...
(There's a difference between adware, malware, viruses, Trojans, phishing ... learn the differences if you want to be protected. The best anti-virus program won't protect you against a phishing scheme.)
Long lesson about viruses and malware.
tl;dr It's up to you, not some program, to prevent your computers from becoming infected.
Nothing will prevent your browser from being redirected - redirection is part of how a browser works. If something prevented redirection, websites could consist of only single pages. And no program can "recognize" the difference between a redirection to a file on another site that you want to download and a file on another site that's adware. It's just a location statement to a URL.
There's no such thing as a "false link". A link is a link. If it leads to a web page it's a legitimate link. You might call a link to nowhere a "false link", but that's not malware, that's a typo on the web developer's part, or a site that no longer exists. motorola.com is a legitimate link. rotomola.com (that's what we used to call Motorola) isn't a legitimate site - there's no such place on the web. It's a "false link", but it's not going to hurt you to try to go there.
But motorola.virus.com, shown on your browser as Motorola App for Android is also a "legitimate" link (if it exists on the web) and doesn't lead to a Motorola app, it leads to a virus app. No program can tell whether virus.apk is an antivirus program or a virus that will destroy your phone. It's up to the user to not click on an obscured link - look at the actual link behind the underlined "link name" to see where you're going. Not only in your web browser, in your email program too. IF your email program can't show you the actual link, uninstall it and use one that actually works. (You should, by clicking or pressing something, be able to see ALL the headers in an email.)
You might also want to read (naked URL here - nothing obscured) https://www.mywot.com/en/forum/21672-wot-alternatives-for-mobile-browsers
WOT (Web of Trust) maintains lists of sites that have been rated bad by users. (Some of them are rated bad out of spite, so there are false negatives, but the ones rated good by the owner hundreds of times are usually caught and given negative ratings.) If you browse to a site that's rated bad, WOT will warn you. Then you can look at the ratings and if it has loads of comments like "not fit for children" or "doesn't know what he's talking about", you know the site is safe, it's probably just a waste of time. If it's rated bad (and there are tons of them), you can opt to not go there.
But the bottom line with viruses, Trojans, phishing, Nigerian schemes and all the rest is that the user has to be smarter than the computer. People who come to me with infected computers, over and over, are the ones who click on links "because you're supposed to click on them", They go to a site promising something for 99% less than the best price you'll find in any store and leave their name, address, SS number, blood type and anything the site asks for. "If it's on the web it has to be true, right?" (I love one of the "penny bidding" sites - they're microns short of illegal advertising in most of the US. What they say is true - the way they say it makes you believe what's not even close to the truth.) The biggest lies in history have probably been told on the web.
If you stop thinking and leave your internet security to all the really good software you installed, you ARE going to get viruses, malware and a new phone. YOU are the best anti-malware item connected with your phone. Anyone can learn how not to get viruses - the problem is that most people want to live in a safe world, they don't want to have to expend effort to learn how to be safe. People still run across a busy street in the middle of the block - and what adult doesn't know how dangerous that is?
So don't be paranoid about malware, become educated about it. There's no truth to the claim that the moment you connect a new computer to the internet it becomes infected with viruses. In fact, the only virus I ever had (and I never used an anti-virus product until the industry I was in was forced to use them) came on a disk supplied by a company whose operating system we were using, as an update to a printer driver. Big, well-known company, but they bought a whole load of disks that some wag at a well-known floppy manufacturer's plant thought it would be fun to infect during manufacture. And since this was a system that only connected to the world by its power cable, it had no virus protection. Oops. (Well, they're no longer in business - taking a few years' gross income as a write-off kind of kills you if you're not IBM - and they weren't.)
There's no such thing as a "false link". A link is a link. If it leads to a web page it's a legitimate link. You might call a link to nowhere a "false link", but that's not malware, that's a typo on the web developer's part, or a site that no longer exists. motorola.com is a legitimate link. rotomola.com (that's what we used to call Motorola) isn't a legitimate site - there's no such place on the web. It's a "false link", but it's not going to hurt you to try to go there.
But motorola.virus.com, shown on your browser as Motorola App for Android is also a "legitimate" link (if it exists on the web) and doesn't lead to a Motorola app, it leads to a virus app. No program can tell whether virus.apk is an antivirus program or a virus that will destroy your phone. It's up to the user to not click on an obscured link - look at the actual link behind the underlined "link name" to see where you're going. Not only in your web browser, in your email program too. IF your email program can't show you the actual link, uninstall it and use one that actually works. (You should, by clicking or pressing something, be able to see ALL the headers in an email.)
You might also want to read (naked URL here - nothing obscured) https://www.mywot.com/en/forum/21672-wot-alternatives-for-mobile-browsers
WOT (Web of Trust) maintains lists of sites that have been rated bad by users. (Some of them are rated bad out of spite, so there are false negatives, but the ones rated good by the owner hundreds of times are usually caught and given negative ratings.) If you browse to a site that's rated bad, WOT will warn you. Then you can look at the ratings and if it has loads of comments like "not fit for children" or "doesn't know what he's talking about", you know the site is safe, it's probably just a waste of time. If it's rated bad (and there are tons of them), you can opt to not go there.
But the bottom line with viruses, Trojans, phishing, Nigerian schemes and all the rest is that the user has to be smarter than the computer. People who come to me with infected computers, over and over, are the ones who click on links "because you're supposed to click on them", They go to a site promising something for 99% less than the best price you'll find in any store and leave their name, address, SS number, blood type and anything the site asks for. "If it's on the web it has to be true, right?" (I love one of the "penny bidding" sites - they're microns short of illegal advertising in most of the US. What they say is true - the way they say it makes you believe what's not even close to the truth.) The biggest lies in history have probably been told on the web.
If you stop thinking and leave your internet security to all the really good software you installed, you ARE going to get viruses, malware and a new phone. YOU are the best anti-malware item connected with your phone. Anyone can learn how not to get viruses - the problem is that most people want to live in a safe world, they don't want to have to expend effort to learn how to be safe. People still run across a busy street in the middle of the block - and what adult doesn't know how dangerous that is?
So don't be paranoid about malware, become educated about it. There's no truth to the claim that the moment you connect a new computer to the internet it becomes infected with viruses. In fact, the only virus I ever had (and I never used an anti-virus product until the industry I was in was forced to use them) came on a disk supplied by a company whose operating system we were using, as an update to a printer driver. Big, well-known company, but they bought a whole load of disks that some wag at a well-known floppy manufacturer's plant thought it would be fun to infect during manufacture. And since this was a system that only connected to the world by its power cable, it had no virus protection. Oops. (Well, they're no longer in business - taking a few years' gross income as a write-off kind of kills you if you're not IBM - and they weren't.)
!on
Android Expert
It's your computer which needs AV, if it is a PC. Most viruses / malware are meant to attack windows computers ONLY.
When you scan your computer, always have your phone connected to it in USB storage mode to the AV will scan both your computer & your phone.
Android AV apps do other things like, locate your phone, remote wipe, downloads scanning, etc... But google does that already.
When you scan your computer, always have your phone connected to it in USB storage mode to the AV will scan both your computer & your phone.
Android AV apps do other things like, locate your phone, remote wipe, downloads scanning, etc... But google does that already.
Petrah
Psychotic Female
The following two stickies in this very forum should answer your questions pretty thoroughly.
http://androidforums.com/android-ap...s-unwanted-shortcuts-browsers-redirected.html
http://androidforums.com/android-ap...explained-security-tips-avoiding-malware.html
http://androidforums.com/android-ap...s-unwanted-shortcuts-browsers-redirected.html
http://androidforums.com/android-ap...explained-security-tips-avoiding-malware.html