Do you need Anti Virus / Spyware App??

[onetreeplanted]

I disabled Lookout on my evo and the battery seems to being doing better. Just stay away from untrusted downloads and attachments and there is only a slim chance that you'll get a virus.

I think the only virus I caught was that one back in 2004 or so, was it Mydoom? but that spread through the network autonomously and i guess i didn't have a firewall.

I suppose the phone alarm thing on lookout might be worth it as another user said, but i'll probably leave it off.

 

[bgrutter]

Interesting article: Insecurity with Android Apps in the Android Market | Android Tapp. Android App Reviews

It seems to lean more toward user selectivity than using screening software, but still good info.

 

[dscribe]

I asked the HTC guy at the Verizon store the other day and he said HTC DOES NOT recommend it.

Does not recommend the antivirus software? LOL.. cool.. he needs to talk to Verizon Wireless themselves about offering Lookout to their customers for their phones in the market then.

 

[Noose475]

i had problems with my camera working properly on my motoroi today. went to the motorola service place here in korea. told the guy i tried to factory reset three times. he said i had two problems,,,one, a file was missing from my sd card,,,second, there was a virus.

i was a bit shocked to hear "virus" in my phone. well he did his thing and my phones normal now. been looking into a anti virus app,,,downloaded one but wasn't happy with it so i uninstalled.

thought i would pass the news about a the virus part.

 

[jennypatel]

Yes, we need the anti virus for the android phones as I had heard that Kaspersky had found the trojan virus on the android phones, so in order to protect our private data and files, we must use the anti virus in our android phones.

 

[A.Nonymous]

Yes, we need the anti virus for the android phones as I had heard that Kaspersky had found the trojan virus on the android phones, so in order to protect our private data and files, we must use the anti virus in our android phones.

Not sure why you are topping two month old threads, but you're wrong. The "virus" Kaspersky found wasn't a true virus. It was a malicious program that required the user to willingly install it. When you installed the program it told you it wanted permission to send SMS messages. Why would a music player need the ability to send SMS messages? The only anti-virus app you need resides between your two ears.

 

[najaboy]

Yes, we need the anti virus for the android phones as I had heard that Kaspersky had found the trojan virus on the android phones, so in order to protect our private data and files, we must use the anti virus in our android phones.

Of course, if you look at the empirical facts of the matter, you will see that anti-virus programs for Android are merely snake oil.

 

[rhall27]

If you do a search for the spyware app "Spybubble" and see the harm it can do, you might want to consider this free app to detect spyware like spybubble; CellGuard Free Anti Spy - Android app on AppBrain

 

[sk0rpius]

I had AVG on my EVO for the last couple of months, never had a problem with it but I was on the wifes EVO earlier and thought i would install it on her phone but when i looked at the recent comments I seen bad bad things so I never intalled on hers and I uninstalled on mine, after the fact my lock screen wouldnt come up at all so I figured hmm maybe a restart is needed. I did so but geez the phone took forever to restart and had my thinking it was a goner for a second...lol Ive been monitoring the phone ever since and it seems no damage was done by the AVG software so far, lets keep our fingers crossed that it hasnt screwed anything up. No antivirus software for my EVO after this... maybe my battery will perform a bit better now...

 

[brucie]

What I have been readin through-out these forums is that android is not subseptable to viruses. A few events in the last few days that have happen regarding my android phone, has made me ask the question that I've asked. Everytime I text, the recepitent gets another texts that says something crazy about ham and that i'm on the road, nothing to do with me!! lol...kind of funny at the time until i realized this is happening to everyone i text and that my gf says wen she clicked on it, her phone shut down and my brother has been having shut down issues(they are the only ones...and they have older phones). Is this just a app compatability or anything anyone else heard of? I'm a little more relaxed coming here and reading that more than less people say we cannot get viruses but I'd love to hear any feedback, thank you!

 

[ablac]

There is a lot of people claiming that you cant get a virus... There is one know virus for android.
What it does is when you install the app it roots your phone, and downloads everthing off your phone and sends it yo the hacker.
This virus was first found by a hacker who reported it to google.
This is where ot gets scary.
In response google scrowered ever single android device and found 237,000 phones had the virus. They then connected to all those phones and manually removed them and repaired the OS. So technically the only reason for an antivirus is to keep Google out. But why would ypu want to keep them from removing harmful software from your phone.
I choose not to have an antivirus, cause ya Google is a crazy company and they do crazy stupid stuff but i would much rather have them behind me then some company that prob ibly has 1 or 2 people trying to find and fix viruses.

The app was on the app store for 8 hours, the hacker reported it after downloading and checking the source code, google responded, removed the virus from every phone in the next 18 minuets. There fast... There all the security you need Lols.

Oh Google also tracked and got the person that made the virus arrested under a Us Federal Offence for hacking and stealing personal data.

 

[Crashdamage]

That was a malicious app, not a virus. Not the same thing.

 

[aysiu]

If you have to install a malicious app to get a "virus," it's not a virus.

 

[Rico ANDROID]

Whut..thu...?

 

[darklide]

Not if your careful ,but with the way its looking you just might soon.

Darn ads in the notifications bar.

 

[rymanh]

is someone has actually had a virus on their android device I would love to hear about it.. and how it was detected..

 

[Crashdamage]

Darn ads in the notifications bar.

Install the free app Air Push Detector to deal with those.

 

[adaaaam]

I wouldn't say there are viruses in the technically defined sense, but I sure could write malware that could access your emails for instance, where I would comb for passwords or vital stats for id fraud. Now once Google determined my apk to be malicious in intent, they would simply remove it from the Marketplace. So as you can see, antivirus is not needed.

 

[Caff Racer]

So if antivirus software isn't needed on a handset, why does my Xperia Neo V come with McAfee pre-installed (albeit a trial version)? To me that would surely suggest that where there's smoke there's a fire, so to speak... Unless of course Sony Ericsson get a backhander from McAfee (and/or vice-versa) for having their software pre-installed, in which case I'll happily uninstall McAfee and replace it with one of the free antivirus apps I've seen on the Market (I'm a tight-fisted bastid at heart lol) and make do with that...

 

[Crashdamage]

So if antivirus software isn't needed on a handset, why does my Xperia Neo V come with McAfee pre-installed (albeit a trial version)? To me that would surely suggest that where there's smoke there's a fire, so to speak... Unless of course Sony Ericsson get a backhander from McAfee (and/or vice-versa) for having their software pre-installed, in which case I'll happily uninstall McAfee and replace it with one of the free antivirus apps I've seen on the Market (I'm a tight-fisted bastid at heart lol) and make do with that...

Of course McAfee paid to have their crap pre-installed. You may not even be able to uninstall it.

Don't bother with other antivirus apps. Waste of time except for scanning files to be transferred to Windows machines.

 

[Slug]

For those who haven't yet found it, the following thread is well worth reading:

http://androidforums.com/android-ap...ps-avoid-viruses-guide-those-new-android.html

 

[Caff Racer]

Interesting bit of reading that is, Slug! I'm used to the iOS environment (iPod Touch) where the apps are usually pretty closely vetted upstream of being made available to the user, so I guess I'll have to get used to having a good butcher's at apps before installing them. I'd have thought that the riskiest apps to install are games, but as I'm not a gamer (I mean, I still thing that Atari's Pong is cool...) I won't be installing any of them. As for other apps, I only intend to install "serious" and "common-sense/useful" apps on my handset, leaving the more frivolous ones for my iPod (see my comments on a "vetted environment" above).

Doesn't really help me to decide whether or not I should have an antivirus app on my handset, so I think that I'll sit on the fence, so to to speak: uninstall McAfee (haven't come to the end of the trial period yet, so it shouldn't be too difficult) and install a serious-looking freebie one and make do with that.

 

[jerofld]

Interesting bit of reading that is, Slug! I'm used to the iOS environment (iPod Touch) where the apps are usually pretty closely vetted upstream of being made available to the user, so I guess I'll have to get used to having a good butcher's at apps before installing them. I'd have thought that the riskiest apps to install are games, but as I'm not a gamer (I mean, I still thing that Atari's Pong is cool...) I won't be installing any of them. As for other apps, I only intend to install "serious" and "common-sense/useful" apps on my handset, leaving the more frivolous ones for my iPod (see my comments on a "vetted environment" above).

Doesn't really help me to decide whether or not I should have an antivirus app on my handset, so I think that I'll sit on the fence, so to to speak: uninstall McAfee (haven't come to the end of the trial period yet, so it shouldn't be too difficult) and install a serious-looking freebie one and make do with that.

Actually, small apps that give one specific functionality seem to be more malware prone than games. While, yes, there are pirated games that have malware attached, you'd be surprised how many flashlight apps are malware. If a flashlight app is requesting access to your contacts, phone identification, and internet, I'd be highly suspicious of it. Just as an example.

 

[brusterj88]

My HTC Incredible keeps getting pop-up adds in the notifications window. Saying, "I've won and Iphone" and Victoria Secret ads. I haven't found any anti-malware software for my device and the anti virus says nothing is wrong.

 

[Rico ANDROID]

My HTC Incredible keeps getting pop-up adds in the notifications window. Saying, "I've won and Iphone" and Victoria Secret ads. I haven't found any anti-malware software for my device and the anti virus says nothing is wrong.

Theres been an increase of postings about ads popping up in the notification bar.. Doesnt sound like a virus, but more like an app installed that has access to modifying the notification bar?