virus protection?

[montereybob]

Is virus protection recommended for droids? If so, which is the best app?

 

[GahhItsLee]

I use antivirus and i have no idea if its needed but it makes me feel safer

Edit: The apps name is antivirus

 

[joeybarclay]

Is virus protection recommended for droids? If so, which is the best app?

you dont really need to worry about viruses on android especially if you get all your apps from inside the market.

 

[furbearingmammal]

Antivirus is unneeded. There's no way (on an unrooted phone) that a virus could get on or do anything. That's the way Linux works. You have to have root access to do any damage.

 

[hookbill]

For virus protection to work, there would have to be a virus for it to protect against. There simply isn't any. So what's it doing? Basically it's hogging your resources.

Get rid of Virus Protection. It's useless.

 

[mwhartman]

I've not read one article indicating that a Droid had received a virus or malware.

 

[furbearingmammal]

I've not read one article indicating that a Droid had received a virus or malware.

I've seen one -- VERY short-lived outbreak that hit about a dozen ROOTED Android phones in Russia before the carrier got wise and cracked down on it.

 

[mwhartman]

I've not read one article indicating that a Droid had received a virus or malware.

I've seen one -- VERY short-lived outbreak that hit about a dozen ROOTED Android phones in Russia before the carrier got wise and cracked down on it.

I can't read Russian:wink:

 

[GahhItsLee]

So even on my rooted incredible i should uninstall antivirus?
Right after i rooted i had like 1500 suspicious things that i assumed were to do with rooting and ignored anyway

 

[furbearingmammal]

Yeah. If a virus hits, we'll know about it soonest, and the carriers will stop the spread as soon as they know anyway. It's a risk, but there are so few viruses for Linux in the first place...

99.5% (conservative) of all Android users are running stock devices with no root access. What that means is that any virus that would infect an Android device would be targeting less than one person of all users. There's no money in that and anyone trying to wreak havoc would find far more satisfaction in writing yet another Windows virus/trojan/worm and releasing it to the wild. It'd be a LOT easier, too.

 

[Pandemic187]

Yeah. If a virus hits, we'll know about it soonest, and the carriers will stop the spread as soon as they know anyway. It's a risk, but there are so few viruses for Linux in the first place...

99.5% (conservative) of all Android users are running stock devices with no root access. What that means is that any virus that would infect an Android device would be targeting less than one person of all users. There's no money in that and anyone trying to wreak havoc would find far more satisfaction in writing yet another Windows virus/trojan/worm and releasing it to the wild. It'd be a LOT easier, too.

Exactly. Why are there very few viruses for PC Linux distributions and Mac OS? Because there are relatively few people using them when compared to Windows, so it makes more sense to target Windows. Same reasoning applies here - while Android is growing rapidly and it seems like there are lots of people rooted here, in the big picture it's a relatively small number.

 

[furbearingmammal]

And let's not forget that Windows is more riddled with security holes than a WWII battlefield was with mines and spent shell casings.

 

[mauiblue]

If it's not needed great but since "Lookout" was free and doesn't seem like it is causing any issues on my Incredible I installed about a month ago or so. Never had any issues with it so far.

 

[mwhartman]

The only downside I could think of it takes up memory.

 

[furbearingmammal]

Memory and CPU cycles. Shorten your battery life slightly.