Smart Phone Virus????

[herbmmm]

I was just reading short article about smart phone virus's and realized I have not seen anything mention here about the subject. What do you guys think? Do you recommend any anti-virus programs? Pick up my Incredible tomorrow!!!!!

 

[Darkseider]

No. Android is as secure as linux seeing that it is spawned from the same source. Now with that being said you do NOT have root access to the device so a virus/trojan/malware etc... will have absolutely no ability to infect your phone. At worst the only thing that could happen is a script or something similar that would wipe out the documents/data in your user space which is likened to the /home directory in Linux. But as far as effecting the core OS and modifying system files. No worries at all.

 

[hookbill]

Do you hear of Macs with Viruses? Well, you'll hear about a Mac having one long before an Android phone gets one. Even the far more popular iPhone has only had one malicious file ever found on it and that was more or less a joke. It didn't do any damage.

 

[jntdroid]

Do you hear of Macs with Viruses? Well, you'll hear about a Mac having one long before an Android phone gets one. Even the far more popular iPhone has only had one malicious file ever found on it and that was more or less a joke. It didn't do any damage.

AND it was for jailbroken iPhones with SSH

 

[Ataranine]

I laugh every time I see an anti-virus app in the Market that costs money. I laugh even harder when I see the idiots in the comments saying how "Secure" their phone is now.

 

[ShowTime]

Just to pile on... no need for one. Pretty much all of the ones available now have been documented to typically just cause problems and do nothing substantially useful.

 

[Dustinmj]

No. Android is as secure as linux seeing that it is spawned from the same source. Now with that being said you do NOT have root access to the device so a virus/trojan/malware etc... will have absolutely no ability to infect your phone. At worst the only thing that could happen is a script or something similar that would wipe out the documents/data in your user space which is likened to the /home directory in Linux. But as far as effecting the core OS and modifying system files. No worries at all.

Trojan apps can be easily written to aggregate all of your information (including call logs, mms, sms etc)... depending on what permissions you give them.

AV apps are a joke, forget it... EDIT:: Actually, an app that blacklists known 'bad apps' may be worth your while. If you're super paranoid.

Be extremely weary of permissions when you install apps.

 

[Dustinmj]

It's also worth noting that the idea that 'Android is essentially linux' is a fallacy. While the structure of the system utilizes the linux kernel, and the drivers for the device themselves are linux-based, Android runs inside of a VM called Dalvik, which is Google's homebrewed Java Virtual Machine.

Many of the software/telephony controls run within Dalvik, not linux. The Android API allows developers access to a large portion of the system controls including calls, mms, texts, emails, internet, and even keypresses (if the user grants the application permission), which, while intended to allow for a broad scope of legitimate applications, also opens up several huge security holes that users should be very aware of. The 'permissions' screen is the only thing between you, and a bad application.