The lessons of Android anti-malware apps
Android prides itself on the freedom inherent in its open-source software, and rightly so, but that freedom comes with a price. It’s no secret that Android devices are much more susceptible to malware than other mobile platforms, and users have to be vigilant with their downloads in order to avoid the worst offenders. One of the steps one might reasonably take would be to download any of the free anti-malware apps available in the various Android app stores, but according to a recent report conducted by AVTest in Germany, to do so would prove “almost completely useless.”
AVTest reports that “the results of the real-time guard functionality were quite shocking.” (PDF download) Most of the free malware detection apps – including Antivirus Free, the most highly rated app in its class – had at a depressing 0% detection rate. In fact, of all the free anti-malware apps available on the market, the best of them only managed to detect 32% in a manual scan. In other words, the most effective free anti-malware app available for Android still lets 68% of the malicious software through to the device it’s trying to infect.
For the most part, the reviews on the web pages for these various apps still don’t reflect the results of AVTest’s report. There are, however, lessons here for users and developers alike. For developers, it’s tempting to think that an app that doesn’t perform as advertised can still garner as many as a million downloads, but is it worth staking the reputation of one’s company on a defective mobile app?
It’s no secret that Android users are notoriously skittish when it comes to paying for the apps they download, but where the security of one’s mobile device and the reams of personal data it’s likely to store are at issue, it’s worth doing your homework and spending a little more in order to rest assured that you’re safe and sound, digitally speaking. Old adages are generally repeated for a reason, and none are older nor truer than this: You get what you pay for.
4 comments
Stan Zabel
November 18, 2011I have an Atrix 4g. what would you recommend to protect my phone
Mark Stetler
November 21, 2011Stan – AV-Test used the security apps sold by the vendors Kaspersky and F-Secure as controls for their test of the free Android apps and found both of those to be reputable and highly rated. Of course, you’ll want to investigate these or any other anti-malware apps and make sure the one you select is best for your device.
Mark
Matt J.
November 22, 2011“Old adages are generally repeated for a reason”, yes, but that ‘reason’ is not always because the adage is true. It certainly is not true in this case.
” and none are older nor truer than this: You get what you pay for.”
No, alas, you do NOT get what you pay for very often. Why, that IS the problem here! Nobody is paying for downloading a virus, yet the whole article is about exactly that danger.
The truth is that you don’t often get what you pay for, you more often get LESS than what you paid for.
But when it comes to anti-virus protection, it was true for years on the desktop PC market that the best anti-virus apps were completely free, the paid ones were WORSE.
Mark Stetler
November 22, 2011Matt – thanks for the comment. No argument that there have been some decent free anti-virus products for PCs. There are also some paid programs worth using (and some that are not). Have you used a free Android anti-malware app that you like?
Mark
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