Hey guys. i read about a lot of anti virus for your droid (i have an incredible by the way). and im hesitant to download any apps without one...
so i was wondering do you guys use an anti virus?
if so which ones?
Yes I do use anti-virus.There is a free app called Lookout in the market. You can download that and use it. If you want to pay for anti-virus, there is Kaspersky Mobile Security available.
Good to know!!! I will have to remember that when I get my X!!
Virus protection on Android is about like having an Appkiller or taskkiller for Android. They appeal to Windows users who, rightly so, won't download anything without a virus scanner. There have been a few Virus scan apps on the market. So far I know of one that was found to be malicious. The rest are worthless. They have to run all the time in the background which uses system resources. It is possible to download a Virus in Android but it would not be detected by a Virus scan because it would have to be either an app itself or built into an app. You cannot unknowingly download a virus that will run on your Android phone. If you did it would be posing as something else and you would give it permissions therefore virus detection would see it as a downloaded app. Third unless your phone is rooted you cannot even on purpose download an app that will affect your system files. Forth the nature of Linux is essentially a system of permissions and isolation. Nothing can affect anything it isn't explicitly given permission to affect. That is why Rooting your phone is dangerous, what you are doing is giving open permission to any and everything, while not only being dangerous to allow any app, virus, or program to run it also can be dangerous in that you can do something accidentally that will ruin the phone. So if you want Virus protection for your Android phone, Don't Root your phone and backup any important files. In otherwords if you download a virus attached to porn (the most common way viruses enter computers) that virus is written to run on a Windows based machine with Administrator privilages (most Windows users are assigned administrator privilages) so it looks around on your Android phone and gets confused. It can't do anything because the OS doesn't communicate with it. Now lets say it happens to be written for an Android phone or for Linux. It will know where it is and what to do but it will require permission to do anything to any file outside of itself. It will try Sudo, SU, and other root accesses seeking your Password files for the right password. If your phone isn't rooted you don't have one nor do you have a Bash in which it can run commands. It is lost. If it is one that affects boot records or bios's or system files there is a possiblitiy that it will go straight to your SD card's format info and it might be capable of crashing your SD card or freezing things up if you try to access it. That can be tricky but reformatting will get rid of it since it wasn't able to move itself, clone itself, or install itself. Kind of like exterminating bugs if you steralize the eggs nothing can hatch.
All your virus protection is doing is using system resources at best. However, there is a possibility that it is collecting information and reporting it to someone else because you gave it permission to access files, read and write, as well as a series of permissions related to systems and network communications. I don't trust Virus software on any Linux based system. That is kind of like giving the keys to anyone dressed as a guard during a riot at a prison. Those are keys you don't just hand over to anyone that can't legitimately verify their identity and reputation and even then under the circumstances you hold on to them until the warden himself tells you everything is under control and the one guard needs the keys to lock everything down. Or in other words, Macaffee and Norton haven't put out Linux based Virus scans so why should I trust a security name I have never heard of with the keys to something that is already locked down.
Is it impossible to download a virus to your phone. NO. Is it impossible for a virus detection software to recognize it as a virus? YES. It isn't considered a virus if you downloaded it, gave it a list of permissions, and then installed it.
Unless you are going to Root your phone you don't need virus software. IF you are going to root your phone then don't install anything from any source you don't absolutely know to be trustworthy. It helps if you can examine the code yourself for anything suspicious. Unless you are a Windows user you don't run your computer on Root so why run your phone that way.
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