So my workplace is mostly iPhone users and someone asked me what kind of antivirus software I used on my Android, and I said “none” and he flipped out about how unsafe it was. Other people chimed in saying how all androids need antivirus apps and I’ve never heard of such a thing. I do have ad-blockers and a VPN but never downloaded an antivirus. Should I? If so, what would you recommend? Thanks lemmings, love you.
You don’t.
Long answer: https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/you-dont-need-to-install-an-antivirus-app-on-your-phone
Interesting read. Now I wonder how this works in grapheneos.
As long as you lock the bootloader, GrapheneOS operates the same as stock Android in this regard. If anything, you’d be safer on GrapheneOS because of the extra control you get over app permissions.
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Nope
Absolutely not, that guy is eating marketing
Apple sponsored fear mongering, I’d say. It’s almost like they had an interest in keeping people away from the alternative.
They have as much need for antivirus software as an iPhone does.
AV is no substitute for proper hygiene. Don’t click random links, don’t install random software, use a VPN on untrusted networks, yadda yadda.
No
Not really. Especially you stick to trusted app stores. It’s only really needed if you frequently sideload apps, and even then only if you feel it’s necessary.
That being said, Hypatia is a good one I like to use from time to time. It’s FOSS too. You can find it on F-Droid if you use the DivestOS official repo.
No amount of antivirus or alternative OSs will save you from unpatched hardware vulnerabilities though. Visiting a malicious web page or downloading a temporarily hostage app from your favorite app store can be enough to allow the bad guys into your device.
As long as you have a currently supported device and keep it up to date, you shouldn’t ever need antivirus.
No amount of antivirus or alternative OSs will save you from unpatched hardware vulnerabilities though. Visiting a malicious web page or downloading a temporarily hostage app from your favorite app store can be enough to allow the bad guys into your device.
Well there’s not just prevention. Antivirus software can detect & remove. Also, by this logic, wouldn’t that mean there’s no point for desktop antiviruses? Seems incorrect to me.
As long as you have a currently supported device and keep it up to date, you shouldn’t ever need antivirus.
And yet sometimes you do need one.
In any case, I never said having one is foolproof. I merely said downloading random apps willy-nilly can increase the risk, sometimes not much at all and other times greatly. It depends entirely on your threat model.
Regarding desktop antivirus, it’s often the case where it is not necessary to have. Windows has Windows Defender built-in, and other operating systems have other means to mitigate any type of viruses. There are actually reports of antivirus causing attacks because their hooks are so deep in the operating system.
Even trusted apps and app stores are prone to being malicious. The upstream packages that they use can have a malicious developer or insecure package, and it gets incorporated in the app, then distributed. Thats why it’s important to use devices that get hardware/firmware updates to help protect against this. If a rootkit is installed, there is no way to ever get rid of it on your system.
Windows Defender is antivirus application, though, so how is it evidence that antivirus applications are pointless? Also, Defender wasn’t always as good as it is. That’s only a relatively recent thing.
Also, there are viruses/malware other than rootkits.
Maybe against the grain, here, with all the comments saying No, but: If you were interested in trying something out, I would give Hypatia a go. It’s a FOSS-based app, available on F-droid. It’s basically a ClamAV front-end. Pulls from their signature lists for Android, alongside other more general AV signature lists. Just an option.
Absolutely. Everyone here is acting like PDF and JPEG exploits on Android don’t exist.
I agree that OP shouldn’t pay for one, and that most AV apps are, at best, garbage, but there are also reasons to have one, and reasonable ones to install - Hypatia being one of them.
Given the restrictive nature of mobile operating systems, such exploits are much less impactful than on desktop OSs. Furthermore, if you are dealing with those exploits, you are probably victim of a targeted attack, which is well above what normal users worry about.
Seems way more effective than LibreAV, which just looks at app permissions
I never have. Keep your shit updated, use a digital condom (ad/malware blocker), and dont go to shady websites offering free games and such and you are fine.
I don’t.
There have been far more severe iPhone exploits in the past year or two compared to Android ones.
Apple will never take the brand hit of allowing third party security software, so maybe let your pals know a brand’s fragile ego is putting them in an arguably more perilous position.
There are corporate security solutions and monitoring available for iOS (ex: CrowdStrike Falcon which I handle at work) but since there are privacy implications, it cannot be installed with full privileges unless the phone is registered to the business in Apple Business Manager and set in supervised mode.
No, antivirus in general is not a good idea these days. It is extremely invasive, consumes resources, and doesn’t actually do much of anything.
Don’t sideload random APKs off the web and you’ll be fine.
This. As @Monke bluntly put it, “common sense”
Not really, as long as you stick to reasonably well-known apps and sources (Google Play Store, F-Droid).
And I’d rather use mobile websites with uBlock Origin in Firefox fornAndroid than using the mobile apps that are infested with trackers and ads.
Antivirus is badness enumeration. Androids security model is way better than that.
