That is one solution, but it is kind of reactive. Finding out that some hacker in China used my Gmail account to send out close to 100 embarrassing spam emails to all my professional contacts is not a good situation to be in. I would like to prevent it from happening again (third time).
I'm no Linux guru, in fact, a Linux newbie, but could I plug my Droid into the USB on my computer and run Malwarebytes against the Droid like it was an external hard drive?
Would it work / help? Or, would the app have to be specific to the Droid OS and version?
This won't solve anyone's problems, but it could help - GMail has a feature where you can look to see what IPs have been using your account recently. There is an option for an alert if google believes there is unusual activity with your account.
You can see the recent IPs by scrolling to the bottom of GMail (in a browser) and clicking the details link next to your IP. More info: Last account activity - Gmail Help
I didn't see the Verizon tech do anything abnormal. They unpacked the phone, put in the card and battery, and booted it. I signed into my Gmail and FB and they sync'd it. They did it all right in front of me. Other than that, they didn't do anything that I can remember...and I didn't download any apps.
After my Droid hosed-up and started spamming, I changed the password on my existing Gmail account, made a new Gmail account just to use with my Droid, changed the password on my FB account, reset my Droid, and re-sync'd to the new Gmail account and FB.
So, considering the pale offering of malware programs available on the current market, what are my options other than that?
Any suggestions?
The charger is not the issue here, so I'm still a little puzzled. It hasn't been spamming since I set up the new Gmail, and changed the password on the old, but then again, there are no emails in my new Gmail account.
My Droid is sync'd to the new Gmail account.
Hmmmm...
However it is not the fact that the device is linux based that keeps it safe, rather in the macs case it is the smaller audience does not attract blackhats like windows does.
There are a lot of droids - enough to draw the attention of the bad men.