Database Users

Which antivirus is suitable for Elfin?

Which antivirus is suitable for Elfin? I google around found a few free and paid antivirus but always there are bad comments about them. Some of the bad comments like "drain battery, phone hang, out of memory, etc".
Or do we really need antivirus?

Check your CD from when you got your phone, I know on mine there is an anti virus on there, I haven't installed it though, and don't plan too. But that's just me.
I run anti virus etc on PC's obviously, if my phone has one, I hope that picks it up.
Hope this helps.

No Virus
Theres no virus for win-mobiles yet... so theres no need for Antivirus

captainstu72, the CD came with my Elfin don't have any antivirus.
hirencj, not only virus, but trojan or dialer. There was a trojan dialer threat some time back on a CS style of game (posted on XDA) which actually will call to a few international numbers at certain time.

The anti virus that came on my CD is F-Secure Anti Virus PPC 5.0 if that is any help. It insisted on installing to the Main Memory and took about 1mb of space.

Virus
As mentioned earlier, WM lacks any credible virus threat (even if a dozen exist they can in no way be called a regular threat)
There are anti-virus solutions from F-secure and McAfee,
but they will end up using a dis-proportionate amount of resources
on the phone. And generally are not recommended
You can completely eliminate the need for anti-virus program if you follow a few
etiquettes, Like avoiding downloading applications from untrusted sources etc

Do you use an antivirus on your Aria or other Android phone?

While I wait for my micro sd to get here to root and use my Aria, I have been just playing around with it and checking out various apps in the market. Then I saw an antivirus app and downloaded. Since I am new to Android, I thought I would ask others whether they have had any problems (or if there are problems) that require an antivirus. Or is it just a useless app?
I noticed there are apps that can contain some important information (i.e. mobile banking and e-mails), but is an antivirus really needed?
Thanks in advance for the discussion.

I personally do not use one, and don't plan on using one unless someone supplies a greatly convincing argument. While I don't doubt that it is a possibility in the future it will be needed, I don't believe they are necessary up to this point. From what I've read there are very few viruses/malware whatnot out there written to affect Android. Everytime you install an app it tells you exactly what it needs to access on that second screen. Also, I'm not sure if you have any experience with what a lot of antivirus applications tend to do to computers speed, but I imagine it'd affect the phone in a similar fashion.
You can read a better constructed forum post about it here
If I'm incorrect on anything someone please correct me

Thanks. That was a good read.
I was just unsure if I want to use the online banking app. It is very helpful and useful but I was just a bit hesitant.

No problem In my opinion, I think for something like that (I use Mint personally, if you don't know what it is, you should check it out for banking/credit cards, finance in general) losing the phone and having the information get into the wrong hands is a bigger concern than a virus stealing it. Again, that's my opinion. Although there are apps for the scenario I described also SMobile Anti-Theft is the only one I can think of off the top of my head for no particular reason, but I know there are a few others (possibly better, not using one myself just yet) out there

Mobile Antivirus = Rip off and waste of phone resources. Sad part is, many programs meant to facilitate tracking your own phone (lost/stolen) for some reason include antivirus kind of crap in it. There are alternatives, but none the less it's all complete nonsense.
Works great, never had a virus with it! Or without it.

I dont have one on my android right now It's true I have to download antivirus software now for Cellphones, especialy android phones. Some of them like avast already have this option. I've read ZenOK Free Antivirus is going to release a free version too. which one you recommend

Never used antivirus on my android phone or my Ubuntu laptop. Never had any problems. I think worst case scenario right now is receiving a virus via email and forwarding it on to an unsuspecting windows box. But then again anyone who gets that email on windows And doesn't have antivirus is foolish.
Of course this could all change in the future and it may one day be necessary yo use an antivirus on android.
Sent from my cm7 Aria.

With your phone it may not be really needed but your laptop?! Do you know how many viruses, malicious software, adware and spyware could be on your laptop right now? I would suggest at least using it on your laptop. Anyways, I do personally use one on my phone as well.

theonew said:
With your phone it may not be really needed but your laptop?! Do you know how many viruses, malicious software, adware and spyware could be on your laptop right now? I would suggest at least using it on your laptop. Anyways, I do personally use one on my phone as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you familiar with Linux based systems such as Ubuntu? It works the same way as android, which is also Linux based. It doesn't operate anything like a windows system. Everything runs in its own little 'box' (think .apks) and pretty much all software is downloaded through an Ubuntu download center (think Android Market). Everything has to have permissions, also just like android. It doesn't utilize .exe like windows. All this adds up to a system that is pretty secure. I don't download any software outside of the download center so I know where all my programs are coming from. All I use my ubuntu laptop for is surfing the web and messing with my phone. My laptop doesn't need an antivirus any more than my phone does. And my phone doesn't need any antivirus. People get stuck on that windows mentality (antivirus/task killers/memory managers).
Sent from my cm7 Aria.

Have never used an Antivirus on my phone I actually don't see how it's really of any use .-.
Everything I download app wise is from the Market and other than that I don't download anything besides a pic here and there

A virus cannot do anything malicious on Android or Linux without permissions, so I think antivirus can only protect a Linux computer or android phone from the user (who has to grant the permissions)...therefore I believe antivirus on android is mostly useless
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App

virus?

I know it's possible to get malware from installing certain apps but can you get it from going on certain websites like on a pc? I think I went on a website that could possibly have had a virus, but is there any way of knowing if I have one or not? I just downloaded webroot and lookout free versions but I'm not sure if they protect from bad websites.

You can't get a virus by visiting a website on either a pc or tablet unless you click yes or accept some java thingy

There is a free ativirus i think on market

spot_1337 said:
You can't get a virus by visiting a website on either a pc or tablet unless you click yes or accept some java thingy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not necessarily true, there are from time to time very critical bugs and exploits one can use to automatically set up a virus by just visiting a site, afaik. Those viruses are often OS and Browserspecific though. So just make sure everything is uptodate, and you're good to go
I don't think you should have much concerns about malware on android, as long as you don't download and install every app you come across.

[Q] Android Antivirus

Hi All
Im a newly converted Android user after purchasing the Nexus 10. Being a newbie to the Android and Tablet world i was just wondering if Antivirus apps are something worth bothering about especially considering im downloading torrents on occasions.
Is Antivirus just something thats not really needed on a tablet, also if you are using one which one do you find is best and doesnt use up to much resources?
Thanks

jvanassen said:
Hi All
Im a newly converted Android user after purchasing the Nexus 10. Being a newbie to the Android and Tablet world i was just wondering if Antivirus apps are something worth bothering about especially considering im downloading torrents on occasions.
Is Antivirus just something thats not really needed on a tablet, also if you are using one which one do you find is best and doesnt use up to much resources?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Antivirus is basically not needed on a tablet, some people like to have it on phones mainly for the all in one security apps that provide antivirus (Mobile Antivirus applications are known for warning you about false positives) plus device recovery and location tools in case your device is lost or stolen. In reality the best antivirus solution for mobile devices is be carefully what applications you download and install, double check the permissions and see if they are realistic for the application that is requesting them. For example, there is no reason a calculator app needs to be able to read your call log's to function. Your less at risk downloading torrents on your mobile device but you still have to be careful with and pay attention to what you download. At the end of the day healthy caution, carefulness, and little research is the best antivirus solution for mobile devices right now.

I've been using McAfee Mobile on tab for over a year and had only one false positive. I contacted them about it and it was corrected within a few days with an update.

Good question. I wonder how they are on battery life and resource hogging........there a lot of choices.

Thanks for your reply shimp208.
Yea i did wonder whether AV was really needed on a tablet or whether it was just a pointless app for the supplier to make some money from ppl being over cautious.

Consider this: It is simply not possible for an antivirus app to detect a real Android virus, trojan or exploit in another app. Since the virus app is an app it is in its own sandbox: it cannot scan the resources of other apps in their sandbox.
Even if if could, it could not remove those resources.
So all it can do is check the permissions of apps, and check media files on your sdcard against a windows virus database.
I've seen the MacAfee app on my friend's phone warn about jpeg viruses. It's silly that anyone would think a windows jpeg virus could affect Android.
It's a scam, folks.

[Q] Silly question, but if...

Silly question, but if our phone cannot be rooted, or access gained via an infection through a clicked on link/downloaded apk.. can our phones catch a virus and have things stolen from us without our knowing? Mostly asking because I always thought rooting a phone was essentially the same thing thing as infecting it. It's a silly question to me mostly because I know little about how the whole scheme of things work when talking about virus infections on a phone. But it's still something I just started to think about since our phone has yet to be rooted. Does this make sense to anyone else what I'm asking? And if so, please, if you can, explain if these phones can catch a virus/infection.

I personally don't use a anti virus. For my it's just a resource eater. But I am always on stock with no root. Maybe when you start downloading apps from unknown sources and install them you can be infected with some nasty things.
Sent from my SM-N910F using XDA Free mobile app

the only real danger is Trojans, virusses that disguise themselves as legitimate apps.
but these are actively scanned for by bouncer on the googe play store servers, and by the Google play services on your phone.
you can protect yourself against them with an antivirus, but it isn't really necessary unless you frequently make use of pirated apps or 3rd party app stores.
these trojans also won't be able to do too much unless you root and give them root access(don't pirate root apps, don't give pirated apps root access)
they can't retrieve more than you allow them.
and rooting typically happens through what could be considered a virus, except that what you install isn't malicious.
1 click root solutions act like trojans by showing as legitimate apps to the system.
flashable root solutions often behave more like rootkits, installing themselves in the bootloader or recovery partitions to automatically re-root the device after an update.
neither are a risk on the note 4 since 1 click root exploits don't work right now, and flashable root methods require some very specific user actions(reboot to download mode, flash with odin)
if you're still worried about security you can enable active knox protection.