Vendors of Android anti-virus software are charlatans and scammers" says Chris DiBona

[Jack]

Chris DiBona,Open source and public sector engineering manager at Google. wrote:[........]

All the major vendors have app markets, and all the major vendors have apps that do bad things, are discovered, and are dropped from the markets.

No major cell phone has a 'virus' problem in the traditional sense that windows and some mac machines have seen. There have been some little things, but they haven't gotten very far due to the user sandboxing models and the nature of the underlying kernels.

No Linux desktop has a real virus problem.

Yes, virus companies are playing on your fears to try to sell you bs protection software for Android, RIM and IOS. They are charlatans and scammers. IF you work for a company selling virus protection for android, rim or IOS you should be ashamed of yourself.

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Sophos wrote:Google's hackerishly hirsute Open Source Programs Manager, Chris DiBona, stormed the IT headlines this week when he stuck his paddle into the computer security world and stirred.

In a blog posting which was at least as far above the line in gung-hovity as it was below the line in orthography, DiBona openly referred to vendors of Android anti-virus software as "charlatans and scammers."

(To be rectangularly precise, DiBona said that such vendors were "likely as not to be scammers and charlatans", and he appears to have meant viruses in the strictest sense of the word - malware which can spread by itself.)

And he didn't just point a finger at the companies which sell mobile anti-virus software. Just by taking employment at such a company, you'll send DiBona's personal VU meter into the red:

"IF you work for a company selling virus protection for android, rim or IOS you should be ashamed of yourself [sic]."

Read more >>

[Jack]

Attacks on Android users are performed mostly through infected apps. placed in the App. Market , Google is giving a lot of details on what the app. wants to do and user can search for other reviews of that app. and in a perfect world that would mean that there is no need to AV on Android.... but there are some Android users(and by some I mean most....) out there who seem to really don't care about security and install all sorts off apps without even taking the time to some basic checkings.....
So bottom line : It's really easy to avoid malware when on Android OS and it's really easy to remove it if you are infected.... so why would you need protection for your Android? Because it has some other features that might be useful like tracking the phone in case it's stolen and yes it can prevent you from doing something stupid ...like installing a infected app.

Are the AV Companies playing on your fears to try to sell you bs protection? ..... If you go to the site/blogs of the companies who sell AV Android products you'll see a ton of articles on malware for android and what it can do... but they don't really say how easy is to avoid it.....
I've also notice that prior of releasing an security app. for android the big companies always flood the news lines with tons of articles on malware for android so there is that....

I do own smartphone powered by Android and I don't have any protection ..... might install a free one but I will never pay for security for Android...

Overall a very good post from Chris DiBona , sorry to see that the guys from Sophos disliked the article..

[WinAndLinuxTutorials]

I understood what did he mean now... All what we need is common sense.

Earth edited 11-25-2011 03:55 PM this post because: I:3: Excessive quoting (quoting the previous post) is not allowed. You should also edit your quotes if necessary.

[Umbra Polaris]

I installed a mobile security suite more for the backup and anti-theft features.