Free Android anti-virus products virtually useless

[win7holic]

As mobile technologies grow more and more advanced, so too does the need to protect and secure them. With phones acting as access to potential access points to sensitive emails, SMS messages and other content, it is inadvisable to leave them unsecured and according to results from AV-Test.org's analysts, you may as well go without one of the free AV options on the Android Market too.

Read more.

 

[Ink]

The ones in the article (for me) are unheard of. Lol.

 

[Valentin N]

a market for innovators. Comodo is on their way to create a security app.

 

[Deleted member 178]

a market for innovators. Comodo is on their way to create a security app.

hope it will be light and efficient like CIS

 

[Valentin N]

a market for innovators. Comodo is on their way to create a security app.

hope it will be light and efficient like CIS

So do I. d+ will surely be needed, in one form or another. People need to be ready to invest a small portion of their time in answering pops up.

 

[AyeAyeCaptain]

This is the new and undiscovered playground, so am sure Comodo will make a fine product, as it's gonna be very tough to compete. If Comodo pulls it off, then this in turn will increase more brand awareness and enlighten the mobile users of the other products on offer.

 

[Hungry Man]

No security app can be effective on Android. Due to limitations in the OS itself (I'm not sure if it's on their linux layer or java layer, but one of those) it's not currently possible to perform any kind of heuristics/ fancy stuff. It's ALL classic blacklists.

 

[AyeAyeCaptain]

No security app can be effective on Android. Due to limitations in the OS itself (I'm not sure if it's on their linux layer or java layer, but one of those) it's not currently possible to perform any kind of heuristics/ fancy stuff. It's ALL classic blacklists.

Thanks Hungry Man, so all that can be done is block calls/sms? Or have I mis-understood you?.

 

[WinAndLinuxTutorials]

Really bad detection rates...

a market for innovators. Comodo is on their way to create a security app.

If they were serious in its development, it will be very good. And the most important thing is to keep it free

 

[Hungry Man]

No security app can be effective on Android. Due to limitations in the OS itself (I'm not sure if it's on their linux layer or java layer, but one of those) it's not currently possible to perform any kind of heuristics/ fancy stuff. It's ALL classic blacklists.

Thanks Hungry Man, so all that can be done is block calls/sms? Or have I mis-understood you?.

All they can do right now is blacklist applications on the market based on signatures. Typical AV stuff. No heuristics or behavioral blocking. I don't know if they can block calls/sms, I would think so.

If you have a rooted phone with Cyanogenmod you can further sandbox applications though this will often break them.

 

[Jack]

The results of the real-time guard functionality were quite shocking. The guard should warn the user
upon installation of malicious apps. The 10 malware samples were chosen with the help of AV-TEST's
own analysis system, which uses more than 30 virus scanners to analyze the APK files. The test set
contains the 10 files, which were most often classified as malware by the virus scanners. Because of
the high detection rates these files can be considered as well known and should therefore be
detected by a reliable virus-scanner. Did the vendors of mobile security apps know them, too? The
test results will show: Zoner AntiVirus Free was the only app with a respectable result. It detected 8
out of 10 samples during the installation attempts. BluePoint AntiVirus Free, Kinetoo Malware Scan
and Privateer Lite still warned against one malicious app. Antivirus Free by Creative Apps, GuardX
Antivirus and LabMSF Antivirus beta failed completely. In comparison to the free apps the
commercial products of F-Secure and Kaspersky detected all threats without a problem.
The number of installations, which is given on the market website, shows that many users trust these
free apps, although they do not offer a reliable protection. The by far most popular program is
Antivirus Free by Creative Apps with 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 installations. The only useful free
product Zoner AntiVirus Free has just 50,000 - 100,000 users. The best protection was achieved by
the commercial tools of the well known security software vendors Kaspersky and F-Secure. The
circulation of obviously near to useless security apps endangers those, who trust them and install
apps from 3rd party app markets without further suspiciousness

http://www.av-test.org/fileadmin/pdf/avtest_2011-11_free_android_virus_scanner_english.pdf (PDF)

Interesting results....but on the free category they've only tested security products that are unknown or have a very low market share so the results are less than comprehensive for the most Android users.

Product tested :
• Antivirus Free ....
• BluePoint Antivirus Free.....
• GuardX Antivirus ......
• Kinetoo Malware Scan ......
• LabMSF Antivirus beta .....
• Privateer Lite ...........
• Zoner AntiVirus Free ....
• F-Secure Mobile Security .....(PAID)
• Kaspersky Mobile Security .......(PAID)

 

[Deleted member 178]

Vipre and BD are in beta stage so not tested.

 

[McLovin]

One that has not been mentioned is Trend Micro (yes I don't mind, still do beta testing for them) they just released one for Android called Trend Micro Mobile Security. Currently trying it out and so far it is quite light. Not tried yet against malware yet tho, but what I see of it is pretty good.