Android and Viruses....

While what you saying is mostly true, remember that the Iphone was much the same way, until it was jail broken, and people left holes up.

So while I think our phones are secure now, it may not always be so. I'm no fan of AV software either. It doesn't work if the PEBKAC issue isn't solved.

I've NEVER run AV software on any system I was the only person using. I've only ever gotten 2 viruses. One I got on purpose, as I was curious, the second was new enough that I missed it.

So if you REALLY want to keep your system, be it PC, Mac, Iphone, Android phone, etc, watch what you install on your system. If it's too good to be true, research it. Usually doesn't take long to figure things out. Google is your friend (and overlord )

 

people jailbreak their iPhones because Apple is so closed, it's the only way to get apps from outside the app store. More and more 'casual' users are doing it to change wallpaper, have multitasking and all kinds of interesting apps.

The biggest reason for rooting android seems to be apps2sd. Apple never had this problem because iPhones have lots of internal memory and no SD to deal with. Android is usually the opposite but thanks to the root hackers, there is a solution. But this is a new capability that android never had before, not a capability that android has but doesn't let you use. Once google incorporates this, there will be very little reason to root and the Android ecosystem won't be a virus target.

 

LOL! Very true.

I also agree, for now. There may be no viruses for the android OS, but that could easily change. IMO, linux doesn't have viruses only because not many people use it. Virus authors would not be very motivated to write a virus for linux when it wouldn't get very far. Just my .02.

 

Umm.. true to an extent. You're right saying that not as many people use it, and since it has a smaller marker share there's not as much money for virus/spyware makers as there is in the PC/Mac scene. That being said, that's not the only reason... linux is a lot more secure than the other OSes as well. A lot.

 

Good point, but it still comes down the user, and how educated they are with the OS they are using. A lot of malware relies on social engineering techniques. Overall, I would agree that linux viruses would have a much harder time spreading though.

 

What about sending data over an open wi fi?
Would that be safe? No firewall needed?

Thanks,
Barry

 

I have to chuckle whenever I see a post like this. There's so much adolescent machismo dripping all over it but it's just narrow minded. Like the OP never heard of malware. It's like there exist these tiny isolated worlds, these little walled gardens, these extremes, where it's either a virus that roots your phone and rewrites the whole OS into a spam machine, or it's the user's fault.

By the way how many apps have you all installed that asked for full internet access that you couldn't immediately, on the spot, think of why it needed internet access?

Also, AFAIK nothing is screened in the market. It just requires developers to self sign their apps, which does nothing to prevent malware. It just leaves a unique ID so google could block that app after something went wrong.


Now this is not to say I'm all chicken little/the sky is falling over here. I have a perfectly reasonable level of trust in the effectiveness of the community policing the apps. But to insult those downloading anti-virus apps is a bit ignorant in my opinion.

 

I wouldn't log into your bank over a wifi other than your work's or home's. I also wouldn't transmit any passwords over any wifi you dont trust (which should be most any public wifi). There is one popular one for airports that's a company you pay for access that's reasonably trustworthy but I can't remember the name of it off my head. And you can probably trust something like starbucks, but you'll have to decide that for yourself.


Also whenever possible be sure to use WPA or WPA2 encryption, WEP is crap and can be cracked in minutes.

 

Im a bit ignorant to the whole Android OS and the security issue people talk about with this OS, but I think I can agree with this statement.

 

I'd skip wpa as well. Though a good wpa password is okayish. WPA can be bruted if you have a dictionary password, in minutes as well. WPA2 is less susceptible, though it can be done as well. I've done wep in a minute twelve seconds, and wpa with a dictionary pass in about 5 minutes. A good password will change that several hundred years, with a cluster of supercomputers.

 

now I'm getting confused.
You're talking about the configuration on a router, right?
Not on the Droid, right?

 

so much stuff to learn with my new "toy".....

 

Not everybody knows that Android is a Linux based OS, and even fewer of those people probably know how a Linux system works, or that it is highly resilient to malware. There's no need to make people feel stupid for doing something that they just assume is protecting their phone.

I understand that you're just giving advice here, but that initial paragraph came across a little bit rude and condescending. If I were to run around asking everybody I know with an Android phone how much they know about Linux, 99% of them probably will have never even heard of it.

 

Both the router and the droid need to be configured to use the same encryption. Unfortunately WEP is the default on most routers because it's considered "easy."

Really though he's right WPA2 is best.

 

I didn't assume your were an adolescent, I said you were behaving like one. And sure enough, you still are. You wave knowledge of Linux around like it's a badge of authority. Malware doesn't have to be a full fledged virus. You obviously know that too, except you pretend that it just cant happen to the "perfection" that is open source and Google.

Do you get why that makes you sound narrow minded? As far as I know Google originally used some older libraries in Android with known security holes and was rightly criticized for it.

Regardless, I feel it's a safe operating system and that you may very well have a valid complaint that the current crop of AV software on the market is useless. I also am a big supporter of open source and Google and Android. But to tell users that they should never worry because Google backs up everything in the cloud is silly, and bad advice.

What you could have done that might have been helpful is to make aware users of how the permissions work. Perhaps you can share some of that Linux knowledge, eh? You could tell users what to watch out for, and what their options are, and even what a heuristic is.



This is why I posted what I did. I apologize for my condescending tone, but your original post was of the same ilk.

 

web browsing.. could this mess me up?

i know some websites that are bad, give me trojans on my desktop PC, im not saying im going to use them, but what if there are websites or apps that load websites that may have spyware malware trojans or various bad guys..

are these apps that run fishy websites, or browsing on some websites going to harm my precious little android

is it at all possible?

 

@ alostpacket I don't think he was coming off as rude, really. I agree with him that people who blindly purchase things based upon labels such as "Anti-Virus" without researching first have more money than brains and deserve to have their money taken.

xentrik is a great example.. he/she is researching a bit before pulling the trigger, which I applaud. To answer xentrik's question.. I don't believe you have to much to worry about, because (as was mentioned earlier) Linux is an extremely well designed OS. Keep in mind, also, that any trojans, etc. have to be specially designed for a given system. A trojan designed for WinXP isn't going to do anything to Linux, for example. Anyways, I'll let someone who knows more than I do answer with a more comprehensive answer.

 

I am very interested in the conversation that Android is safe to viruses. I had my entire music library delete before my eyes less than 24 hours after I downloaded imusic (app from market) which I gave permission to access my library. Afterwards, I downloaded 2 songs played them both several times. When I woke in the morning to play the song once again I was prompted with a phrase to the effect "this song is not formatted to be compatible with this player". I tried several songs from my original library all with the same prompt. I then turned off my phone. Rather than turning off it rebooted on its own. I quickly went to music to then see my entire library disappear. If this isn't a virus what could it be? I am concerned about mounting the phone to a computer, even though it's a mac.

 

getting lookout was a no brainer for me.. needed the location service, the anti virus was just a bomus

 

Dragonroit all of your knowledge and suggestions are appreciated. My library is backup in more than spot so gratefully I really lost nothing. I uninstalled imusic instantly and would rather, as you suggested get music from a source I trust. Ironically the song I downloaded was Crash by the Primitives. Being a mac user I am unfamiliar with the experience of a so called virus. (I'm not claiming this was a virus) In your experience would it be safe to mount the phone to the mac to then load music from itunes? I reformatted the SD card and uninstalled imusic.