Hardly a month goes by without another alarming report about the tens of thousands of malware targeting devices running Google's Android mobile OS.
The malware issue is one of the reasons why Android hasn't caught on in
the enterprise, even as the search giant's OS dominates the consumer
mobile market. Yet as I wrote recently,
the percentage of Android devices actually infected is small: Just 1%,
according to Alcatel-Lucent's Q2 malware report (versus 0.52 for all
mobile devices).
From failing to define data governance, to premature launch, or expecting too much from a sponsor, this Learn More
That's great news for 99% of Android device owners. But what if your device is one of the 1%? How can you even tell?
The easiest way is to run a scan using one of many free or paid
anti-malware programs. However, before we get to those, let's look at
some of the signs that your Android device is infected.
As with infected PCs, mobile devices that have downloaded malware can
develop noticeable performance issues. Is everything taking longer than
usual? Are you using up data at a faster rate than before? Does your
battery seem to be running down much faster than previously? Are calls
being dropped or interrupted with weird noises?
There could be other reasons for those performance issues -- maybe
you've been on a YouTube jag, maybe your approaching the device's
storage capacity, maybe you dropped your Android phone in a kitchen sink
full of water while playing Candy Crush.
But there's no point in guessing or taking a chance, especially if you
use your phone for work. Remember, some malware exists to collect and
transmit data to the malware creators, and that includes enterprise
information and passwords that might be on the device.
So if you do have malware detection and removal software on your
Android device, you should use it if you suspect a problem. Check that:
You should run malware scans routinely as a matter of precaution. It
doesn't take long and it can give you some peace of mind.
Here are a few of the malware protection apps you can download from Google Play: Malwarebytes Malwarebytes, long a provider of PC malware protection software, on Wednesday unveiled its first mobile software for Android devices.
The company says its free Android app covers more than 200 malware
families and their variants, including "thousands of malware types,
Trojans, backdoors, and spyware."
I already have Lookout (more on that below) on my HTC One and Nexus 7,
but downloaded Malwarebytes onto my smartphone to try it out. The app
scanned my device in less than a minute and declared it malware-free.
Malwarebytes also has a Privacy Manager that details which third-party
apps on your Android device are accessing personal information such as
your accounts, calendar, security settings, storage, text messages and
more. (It's a large number, and I'll get into this personal information
access issue in another article.)
Lookout
I've used the free version of Lookout Security & Antivirus since I bought my devices a couple of months ago. It's pretty comprehensive as far as scanning and protecting my devices
from threats -- open Lookout and it shows you a list of apps with their
security status ("Evernote is safe," "Waze is safe," etc.).
Lookout's settings allow users to determine whether the app
automatically scans their devices weekly (which is what I do), daily or
not at all. If you choose the latter (which I don't recommend), Lookout
has a "Scan Now" button you can press to launch a scan.
Lookout is very popular, with more than 40 million downloads and nearly
a half-million reviews on Google Play, with an average rating of 4.5
out of 5 stars. AVG Antivirus
This is an app I don't have, but I've used AVG for years on my PC. AVG's free mobile app
for Android has been downloaded more than 70 million times and is even
more highly rated than Lookout (4.6 average rating from nearly 679,000
reviewers).
Updated just last week with new permissions and auto power-saving to
reduce battery consumption, AVG Antivirus scans apps, settings, files
and media for viruses, malware and spyware. And while this has nothing
to do with malware, AVG Antivirus also will kill tasks that slow your
device -- a nice feature.
AVG also offers a free antivirus app for tablets in Google Play, but I'm not sure how it differs from the other mobile version. Avast Mobile Security & Antivirus
Another company well-known for its PC protection software, Avast
protects your Android device by scanning installed apps and memory card
content, as well as new apps when they're first used. Users also can
schedule automatic scans of their Android devices with Avast.
This is another highly rated app, with a 4.6 average rating in Google Play from 425,000 reviewers.
There are dozens of other malware protection apps
in the Google Play store. As far as which one to choose, I don't
recommend any of the apps cited above over each other. My recommendation
is to stick with a familiar name that has a lot of reviews (at least
100,000) and a high rating. There's no need to be blazing a trail when
it comes to your device's security.
By Chris Nerney
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