Many Android anti-virus apps are useless.
 

If a passing Mod wants to move this thread please feel free to do so as I'm not sure if this is the right place to give this link.

AV Comparatives tested 250 Android anti-virus apps and the results published this month are interesting. :erm: Well at least they were to me.

https://www.av-comparatives.org/test...2019-250-apps/

Re: Many Android anti-virus apps are useless.
 

I was always under the impression that Android didn't need any protection as the risk was so tiny. This article says that you are more likely to have your device stolen than it become infected with a virus!

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to...droid-3668607/

Should I be using one?

Re: Many Android anti-virus apps are useless.
 

I am an ingrained worrier about all things techie so I do have an anti virus app on my android phone, along side the same virus app on my computer, my laptop and chromebook. :D I would rather have that little bit of a security blanket in case all my vigilance in keeping myself safe on line fails. Happily my Bitdefender passed the test with a 100% success rate and I have more than enough free resources on my phone to not notice it.

Having read the report I was more interested in the fact that so many of those tested failed and that so many of them were total cons.

Re: Many Android anti-virus apps are useless.
 

I’ve always used AVG (free) on my phone, and I’m pleased to see it got 100%...

Re: Many Android anti-virus apps are useless.
 

I use Eset's mobile version of Nod32 on my android devices.

Re: Many Android anti-virus apps are useless.
 

Bit of a misleading or ambiguous title...

TL;DR version is that 80 android AV apps had 100% detection rate and are far from useless. These are well known brands such as ESET, Fsecure, Kaspersky, Avast etc.

As anyone can publish apps in the app store, there are many fake apps trying to get advertising money by offering what looks to be an antivirus product but doesn't do much. Those are the useless ones. Don't Use an AV product you don't recognise.

Just stick to AV brands with a good reputation and you will be ok and have useful protection. Ignore the US and UK government attacks on Kaspersky, it is in the top 3 of all AV software and its reputation is very good among security professionals.

If you install APK's from non-play store sources, ESETs software will jump in and scan it before passing it on to the install stage. It's overhead is very small too.

---------- Post added at 10:33 ---------- Previous post was at 10:21 ----------

Pretty much every operating system can benefit from AntiVirus protection as all can be hacked/exploited and infected.

How you use your phone opens up the size of the attack surface and possibility of infection. If you don't install APK's from random places or visit dodgy sites, your chance of infection is much smaller than someone who does.

At the same time, visitors to many top 100 legit sites have been infected with malware due to bad adverts served on those domains and vulnerabilities in browsers. Although the chance is tiny from visiting a main newspaper site for example, it can and does happen.

There was a recent chrome exploit that also affected android, so just visiting a site could get you infected if they use the exploit code.

Security is always about layers and usability. If your phone slows down to a crawl with AV software, then don't use it. But they have been made to use few resources and not be noticeable so I would recommend trying one. Free ones are going to be noisy and let you know how great they are doing in the hope you buy their premium version. Paid ones like ESET are pretty much silent until they are needed. Try a few but keep to the known brands.

Re: Many Android anti-virus apps are useless.
 

My android phone has a built in virus/malware scanning option.

Re: Many Android anti-virus apps are useless.
 

I have the 10 device Norton so use one of the license for my tablet.