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This is an interesting article.
Google this week removed two applications from its Android Market, and exercised a feature that lets the company remotely delete the apps from a user's phones.
Read full article
socktug said:
This is an interesting article.
Google this week removed two applications from its Android Market, and exercised a feature that lets the company remotely delete the apps from a user's phones.
Read full article
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Old news m8
Really? I never knew they could do it.
I found it interesting anyway. Lol
cant you just reinstall the backup apk via astro?
Disappointed, Google is becoming Apple.
In no way is Google becoming apple it was a malicious app that wasn't what it said it was I am glad they look in to the apps and can pull bad ones out b4 they can do harm
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Which apps was that? The article doesn't say?
I don't mind them taking it from the app store, good for them doing that.
They intruded my phone. That is the exact same thing apple has been doing/does.
Maybe I liked that app and WANTED it on my phone?
And that sucks my dear friend.
ljesh said:
I don't mind them taking it from the app store, good for them doing that.
They intruded my phone. That is the exact same thing apple has been doing/does.
Maybe I liked that app and WANTED it on my phone?
And that sucks my dear friend.
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So you would rather keep a malicious app that doesn't do what it says it does and can cause harm to your phone and/or steal your information?
Yes, I would rather keep a malicious app that does whatever it wants on my phone instead of Google invading your privacy.
Or lets put it this way. You better live with your malicious app instead of putting me in situation for Google to invade my privacy.
Or maybe you would like your antivirus company to have access to remove viruses from your PC? I mean, they are still doing good job, keeping your PC clean... and invading your privacy.
I (personally) am really concerned about this issue, don't know why nobody talks against this. Either you ignore it, or support it. Really strange.
ljesh said:
Yes, I would rather keep a malicious app that does whatever it wants on my phone instead of Google invading your privacy.
Or lets put it this way. You better live with your malicious app instead of putting me in situation for Google to invade my privacy.
Or maybe you would like your antivirus company to have access to remove viruses from your PC? I mean, they are still doing good job, keeping your PC clean... and invading your privacy.
I (personally) am really concerned about this issue, don't know why nobody talks against this. Either you ignore it, or support it. Really strange.
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i can appreciate your position on privacy. however i find your stance invades my freedom to own a phone. you state that i should live with a malicious app so you can keep your privacy. i don't know enough about programming to tell if an app is malicious or not, so i personally don't mind allowing google to remotely remove a malicious app. if you don't like or agree with this, don't use the marketplace. you agreed to allow google to use this feature the second you entered the app market. you can manually download apps and install them to your phone outside of the marketplace and preserve your privacy.
I am NOT happy with this act of google.
ljesh said:
Yes, I would rather keep a malicious app that does whatever it wants on my phone instead of Google invading your privacy.
Or lets put it this way. You better live with your malicious app instead of putting me in situation for Google to invade my privacy.
Or maybe you would like your antivirus company to have access to remove viruses from your PC? I mean, they are still doing good job, keeping your PC clean... and invading your privacy.
I (personally) am really concerned about this issue, don't know why nobody talks against this. Either you ignore it, or support it. Really strange.
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While I agree that this capability of Google's sounds a bit shady, consider this:
-Privacy is the issue here. Yet, most Android users use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Google Docs, etc. Therefore, Google already has much of our supposedly private information. Ironic thing is that we, the users, willingly provide it to them.
-This "feature" of Android is relatively well-known. So, it's not like Google was deliberately trying to hide something. Moreover, they even came out to say that they utilized this "feature". They're certainly not obligated to do so and yet, they did it anyway.
-Apple fully controls the user experience on their iOS. All applications must be approved by Apple. The Android Market doesn't experience this sort of control from Google. So perhaps Google uses this remote kill feature as a form of last-resort control. I realistically can't fault Google for wanting some sort of control over their OS.
Google have never hid the fact they can remove malicous apps from peoples handsets. Keep in mind they can only do it, if the app was installed through the marketplace, i for one have nothing to hide so have none of the privacy issue others seem to worry about, and the ppl that say "ooh id rather have malicious software on my fone than have google wipe it" u shud think more about the people who dont want malicious code on there phone and that by comunicating with other android phones you could be passing it on
This all came up before when the iPhone first came around, and the discussion will be no different this time.
However, in custom ROM design there were options created as a killswitch to Apples God Mode.
I'd say the only way to resole the problem would be to follow in those steps.
Make an update.zip that will patch out the relevent code or application that allows google to do this. Then you make the concious choice on your own without affecting anyone else.
I think it's better that google has a feature like this, and to those people that talk about privacy.
How about a app that steals all the information stored on your phone or makes expensive calls.
Google has less impact on your privacy then those apps can do.
i dont like this either, how about (since people get notified anway) that google simply gives an advisory that appears on peoples phones stating why this app needs removing. that way you can ignore it if you want.
you know that this will be used to remove apps that the RIAA/MPAA mafia complain about - that's just a matter of time.
i'm curious if it's a 1 time thing. like they remove it, but you have the apk still and just re-install the sucker
ljesh said:
Yes, I would rather keep a malicious app that does whatever it wants on my phone instead of Google invading your privacy.
Or lets put it this way. You better live with your malicious app instead of putting me in situation for Google to invade my privacy.
Or maybe you would like your antivirus company to have access to remove viruses from your PC? I mean, they are still doing good job, keeping your PC clean... and invading your privacy.
I (personally) am really concerned about this issue, don't know why nobody talks against this. Either you ignore it, or support it. Really strange.
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Click to collapse
Please, stop with the privacy bull****. During this process google never accessed any of you data of your phone, hell they never even entered your phone, but merely pressed a button that sent a request to your phone to delete the retarded app.
You guys need to stop whinning about stuff that you accepted in the first place (yes you did, by clicking "i accept those terms" when accessing the market).
Can people stop spreading FUD? You can install whatever app you want on your phone...Google can't touch them unless you got them FROM Google in the Market. If you got malicious apps from Google I guarantee you guys would be the first on the net *****ing and moaning about it.
How do I know this? From the numerous "Swype broke my multi-touch!!" posts that followed the Swype developers BEGGING you not to install it. No matter how much they said it was unfinished leaked code, fools STILL installed it and then wanted to ***** about it breaking their phone, albeit temporarily. This proves one thing...end users are usually pretty dumb. Google is covering their back as it's been proven they can't really trust their users to use sense.
Aitese said:
Can people stop spreading FUD? You can install whatever app you want on your phone...Google can't touch them unless you got them FROM Google in the Market. If you got malicious apps from Google I guarantee you guys would be the first on the net *****ing and moaning about it.
How do I know this? From the numerous "Swype broke my multi-touch!!" posts that followed the Swype developers BEGGING you not to install it. No matter how much they said it was unfinished leaked code, fools STILL installed it and then wanted to ***** about it breaking their phone, albeit temporarily. This proves one thing...end users are usually pretty dumb. Google is covering their back as it's been proven they can't really trust their users to use sense.
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quoted for truth
Lately all my friends around me have been trending using virus scanners on their phones like that lookout app. I never had to use one and I'm more technical when it comes to my phone then they are. They aren't even rooted they don't have half the amount of apps that I do or use the phone as much as me. This thing is my life.
My question is for those who are more technical then me, should we use these antivirus'? Are we in danger when downloading apps from the market directly? I scan my apk's on my pc when downloading from the net or websites so I think I'm straight. But you never know. I just want a firm answer if these things work or just kill your battery and mickery.
HTC Vision S-OFF CM6.1 Stable Oc'd to 1.5ghz on Pershoots Kernel
I installed AVG Free from the Market.
is it necessary, not sure.. but it offers more benefits than just virus scans, and I trust AVG.
A virus scanner is a huge waste of battery. There are no viruses for your phone. As far as AVG goes..... I wouldn't wish that program on my worst enemy...
in my 20+ years a using a cell phone I have never come across a virus, I have used just about every format of phones, lately there have been some reports of a virus for Android, search and read where that was found and how you can get it, basically don't download crap from some suspect website, download apps from trusted places like the market and you will be fine, in my opinion right now virus scanners are nothing but a was of space on the phone memory that use up battery slow down the phone and do nothing as there no viruses.
my $0.02 cents
I got lookout on mine. It has an anti virus built in. I mostly use the app to find my phone after I misplace it some where in my apartment.
I agree there is no need for a antivirus. If you follow any of the major
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Android is a Linux derivative. Linux needs antivirus like a fish needs a bicycle.
Sent from a Western Union telegram.
Trojans have come out of china being injected into "unknown sources" android games (not from the market but 3rd party sources). They collect info from ur phone. Not sure if anti vrius apps pick them up now..but if u only install stuff from the market and not warez from like rapidshare or other places u should be fine
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
it is so "Windowsy" to install task killers and disease killers. I wouldnt knock the windows user --- they are a strong proud people!
Regardless where you get your apps from since it does detect malicious code in apps its worthwhile if you get apps from random locations...it (lookout) doesn't seem to slow anything down on my G2
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Sure it's "windowsy" if your pc is super slow/out dated. But the thing is I do get apps from other sources/markets not just the android marketplace. Even downloading apk's people post on these forums can sometimes be dangerous to our phones that's why I download everything to my pc, it always scans my downloads and doesn't let me pick up a virus.
HTC Vision S-OFF CM6.1 Stable Oc'd to 1.5ghz on Pershoots Kernel
I was being very sarcastic in that last post -- its necessary in windows (i love windows) but I notice the windows mentality - people assume it needs what windows needs - its almost a built-in trait. but I like that saying -- linux needs antivirus like fish need a bicycle -- ha ha!
elracing21 said:
Sure it's "windowsy" if your pc is super slow/out dated. But the thing is I do get apps from other sources/markets not just the android marketplace. Even downloading apk's people post on these forums can sometimes be dangerous to our phones that's why I download everything to my pc, it always scans my downloads and doesn't let me pick up a virus.
HTC Vision S-OFF CM6.1 Stable Oc'd to 1.5ghz on Pershoots Kernel
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Dumb question: If your PC is Windows and the phone is Linux... why would your Windows antivrus alert you to Linux viruses? I don't think .exe's work on Android.
Because an APK is just a renamed Zip file
OK I understand the APK is a renamed ZIP file, but if someone developed a virus for Android being Linux based would a Windows virus scanner recognize it ? Can windows virus scanners recognize Android virus code ? I don't think so but I am not a programmer or coder, so scanning APK's in a windows machine is useless as it will not recognize the virus code, but any ways again I have never heard or seen a virus for any cell phone make, to me right now it is useless to have one taking up processor power battery power etc
Isn't the real threat malicious apps anyways?
I say better safe than sorry, most people have more personal stuff in there phones then computers, easier access to facebook, gmail, twitter logins, contacts, pics, as technology grows on phones, so do does the threat. Phones are getting more like mini personal computers, most of people's lifes revolve around they phone, so every time I think I dont need it, I read about lookout finding possible viruses, so install it back on my phone, plus when I heard the Droid commercial mention it, it kinda convinced me I needed it
Sent from my super G'd up G2!
Bangin' dat Android Gang!
IPK all day!!! Throw dem A's up!
I downloaded lookout and the virus scanner was at the bottom of my list for reasons to dl. I just have it for when I lose it or it gets stolen.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
So, are you feeling lucky?
IMHO, an android phone is an at-risk platform. Probably moreso than your computer. Consider how much personal information you have on your phone. Then think of the havoc that a trojan could wreak on your personal life and family. If you don't think it could happen, consider what a malicious person could do with all your the phone numbers and email contacts. Perhaps not gain any money, but certainly the possibility to steal your on-line identity is there. Just think how your parents would like to get a "posthumous" goodby email...
There are people who get a kick from messing up another person's life, just for fun.
Isn't the real threat malicious apps anyways?
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This is exactly what I was saying in my previous post...they just detect apps that might do things outside of set regulations. (Spam email steal contacts etc.)
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Ive had so many apps that suck so bad, they are so buggy and barely work. Such as Opentable, podcast, and several others. Makes me weary to even purchase full apps even though you can try them. Most apps available suck anyways.
I need:
Best buy app
Chipotle app
Panera bread app
Good podcast app
Good radio app
Good turn by turn navigation app
Opentable that actually works
and im sure there are several apps that I would like to use but not yet available, marketplace is full of bull crap. lets get some stuff people will actually use on a daily basis.
This whole market place concept is a bust.. just because it worked for iphone dosent necessarily mean it will work for wp7. They said marketing stuff like 'oh we have 6000 applications in marketplace!' Reality is its not even worth except for more than 1-2 of them to even download and waste time on.
937dytboi said:
Ive had so many apps that suck so bad, they are so buggy and barely work. Such as Opentable, podcast, and several others. Makes me weary to even purchase full apps even though you can try them. Most apps available suck anyways.
I need:
Best buy app
Chipotle app
Panera bread app
Good podcast app
Good radio app
Good turn by turn navigation app
Opentable that actually works
and im sure there are several apps that I would like to use but not yet available, marketplace is full of bull crap. lets get some stuff people will actually use on a daily basis.
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Zune is great for podcasts. What do you want a podcast app to do? The Maps app has great TBT nav - no voice, though.
937dytboi said:
Good radio app
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I'm going to guess you don't like the radio that's already in there.
This is the kind of thing that may suck on WP7 phones for a little while...but i expected that didnt you?
The iphone apps were all full of crap when they first came out....it took time for people to get used to making them, I think the promising thing is that big companies are starting to bother making apps, so it shows people are getting serious.
I read it in an article that MS is a software company and if theres anyone who is going to be able to make it work at this sort of 'late entry' into the market its them.
I have at least 12 APPS I really like and that I use all the time
I think we are just guna have to wait for a bit
The marketplace idea is not a bust.
Developers who want to earn money selling their apps and games have a better chance when all the customers are funneled to one place, as opposed to having to search obscure sites, to find their product.
At that point, it's up to the developer to try to make a compelling enough product for the customer to think it's worth purchasing.
For the customer, they could go to one place to look for anything that is currently available for their phone. They can try out any application without risk, and if they feel that the product is worthy, they can purchase it easily. The rules for purchasing each app/game will be universal. They don't have to go through different payment processes with different companies.
Purple11 said:
Reality is its not even worth except for more than 1-2 of them to even download and waste time on.
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Really? So which one or two out of the following do you feel is worth downloading?
Twitter
Facebook
Youtube
Microsoft Tag Reader
Adobe Reader
Shazam
IGN
IMDb
eBay
Flixter
These are just some of the apps I couldn't live without - however, if you manage to witter it down to 1 or 2 I'll post an updated list of all my "important" apps. Although, IMO, 99% of people would have maxed their 2 apps from the top 5 in the list above.
emigrating said:
Really? So which one or two out of the following do you feel is worth downloading?
Twitter
Facebook
Youtube
Microsoft Tag Reader
Adobe Reader
Shazam
IGN
IMDb
eBay
Flixter
These are just some of the apps I couldn't live without - however, if you manage to witter it down to 1 or 2 I'll post an updated list of all my "important" apps. Although, IMO, 99% of people would have maxed their 2 apps from the top 5 in the list above.
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This and more and more and more.
OP and hater beneath him, you're just being a little narrow minded tbh.
given that A LOT of the applications are data based, how is your network coverage? is it quite patchy? if so, this would explain why a lot of applications appear very bad constantly not responding/loading data.
as for the market place, i think it's a bit of a good and bad thing. the iPhone model is good for itself, but WP can't copy it completely because of the differences it has. for example, WP offers in app trial mode. this needs to be made more promonent and needs to encourage the end user that these apps work as a trial. with this, then more people who list their apps as a paid app would get better usage as people don't instantly think they have to pay anything to use it.
i personally don't buy any app unless i get a bit of a play with the app first. but the problem is, i have to go to each app to see if it has trial available. the market place needs to adjust to this variable in greater force because it's actually what makes the WP market place a great prospect and cancels out the duplicates which you see in the iOS market place (the free and paid version of apps).
emigrating said:
Really? So which one or two out of the following do you feel is worth downloading?
Twitter
Facebook
Youtube
Microsoft Tag Reader
Adobe Reader
Shazam
IGN
IMDb
eBay
Flixter
These are just some of the apps I couldn't live without - however, if you manage to witter it down to 1 or 2 I'll post an updated list of all my "important" apps. Although, IMO, 99% of people would have maxed their 2 apps from the top 5 in the list above.
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Other than Adobe Reader all other software you mentioned are useless to me. I am a smartphone user, not an Iphone user.
Oookayyy... so what do you want then?
zukа said:
Oookayyy... so what do you want then?
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Better: Calendar, Appointments, Time Management, Alarm, Wallet, Book Keeping, Expense Records, Maps, Navigation, SMS/Mail Organizing, Dialer, Auto-Call Record, Call Management, Data Management etc etc you should get an idea ..
Purple11 said:
Better: Calendar, Appointments, Time Management, Alarm, Wallet, Book Keeping, Expense Records, Maps, Navigation, SMS/Mail Organizing, Dialer, Auto-Call Record, Call Management, Data Management etc etc you should get an idea ..
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Most of which is part of the core OS - now if all you want are better implementations of the above, feel free to discuss what, specifically, needs fixing in the core experience.
If you ask me, the calendar, appointments, time management, alarms and email are all working fine out of the box - sure, we need better exchange support (server search etc), but it does what it's supposed to for now.
As for Book Keeping / Expense Records (why are you listing both?) - there are apps for this.
Bing Maps is included out of the box. Navigation may be poor, but there are apps for this that help somewhat.
In any case - if you need enterprise features like what you've listed above you're really not part of the target audience for WP7 at the moment. Something which has been very clear ever since the February unveiling of WP7 last year.
emigrating said:
Really? So which one or two out of the following do you feel is worth downloading?
Twitter
Facebook
Youtube
Microsoft Tag Reader
Adobe Reader
Shazam
IGN
IMDb
eBay
Flixter
These are just some of the apps I couldn't live without - however, if you manage to witter it down to 1 or 2 I'll post an updated list of all my "important" apps. Although, IMO, 99% of people would have maxed their 2 apps from the top 5 in the list above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See we are just two different people, KI dont have a twitter or Facebook account. So thats useless to me, Shazam I wont really use. But everything on your list is fine. My problem is that some apps that ive downloaded seem not to work like advertised and they crap out by running slow or not working at all. But I think im jumping the gun here, I just think we should have a better marketplace selection but I have to realize that the marketplace has just really opened to be honest. Just felt I needed to gripe about my experience
What's also a problem (for now) is that development for Windows Phone is so similar to developing for regular Windows environments: same tools, same programming languages, etc. A lot of "normal" Windows / .NET developers are early adopters of the platform and are having their go at developing a Windows Phone app. Unfortunately they don't always consider the limitations that the platforms has. They'll use a lot of heavy animation, request huge amounts of data, use imagery not optimized for mobile use. Thus: crappy apps.
I think over time this will all settle and the apps will become better.
That said, Microsoft does need to increase the overall app performance on the phone. There's a noticable difference between the built-in (native) apps and the managed apps.
stringray said:
What's also a problem (for now) is that development for Windows Phone is so similar to developing for regular Windows environments: same tools, same programming languages, etc. A lot of "normal" Windows / .NET developers are early adopters of the platform and are having their go at developing a Windows Phone app. Unfortunately they don't always consider the limitations that the platforms has. They'll use a lot of heavy animation, request huge amounts of data, use imagery not optimized for mobile use. Thus: crappy apps.
I think over time this will all settle and the apps will become better.
That said, Microsoft does need to increase the overall app performance on the phone. There's a noticable difference between the built-in (native) apps and the managed apps.
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this is blatantly false. First of all unless you're doing game programming you can only make Silverlight apps. Most regular windows applications do not use silverlight! You would think the web designers who use that stuff can create better apps, guess not.
Secondly the reason for crappy apps is entirely microsoft's fault. To get your app published, you need to pay 99$ a year for a developers license and get your identity verified by some thirdparty. After that when you submit an app, it is supposed to get reviewed by a team at microsoft to verify that your app meets many of the app guideliness set (like not crashing!).
I remember going to Tech Days (microsoft developer conference) and hearing them bragging about how their app reviews ensured that only quality apps were released but lately the amount of **** apps that have been appearing on the app marketplace makes me think they are just auto approving anything without even checking to see if it works.
pillsburydoughman said:
this is blatantly false. First of all unless you're doing game programming you can only make Silverlight apps. Most regular windows applications do not use silverlight! You would think the web designers who use that stuff can create better apps, guess not.
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Zero windows applications use Silverlight. WPF maybe, but Silverlight is a web-only subset. What stringray actually said was:
Windows Phone is so similar to developing for regular Windows environments: same tools, same programming languages, etc.
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Which is correct. Visual Studio is the primary development tool for desktop and C# is very popular development language for desktop.
The rest of what you said is probably true. But you can never test an app and say that it will never crash. Do you remember WM6.5 when you downloaded an app to find it didn't even launch on your device? Well at least it's filtering out all that crap
Silverlight is not only for web development. I believe since Silverlight 3.0 you can use them as desktop applications as well.
pillsburydoughman said:
Secondly the reason for crappy apps is entirely microsoft's fault. To get your app published, you need to pay 99$ a year for a developers license and get your identity verified by some thirdparty. After that when you submit an app, it is supposed to get reviewed by a team at microsoft to verify that your app meets many of the app guideliness set (like not crashing!).
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Click to collapse
How is the way you pay and get verified the reason why the apps are MS' fault?
Yea, they check them but rarely have I seen an app crash (actually I haven't yet but I'm not going to state that all of them have).
I just want to quickly point something to the ones you have hated apps.
Why don't you give feedback to developers? I have given serveral and emailed several feedback and have gotten a response each time. And each time, they take my feedback into consideration and either plan to implement them in the future.
As the end-user don't we want the best product? To get the best, we have to critique and help evolve the marketplace/apps. Only this way do developers know how to improve and what needs to be improved.
Otherwise they believe everything is dandy.
pillsburydoughman said:
this is blatantly false. First of all unless you're doing game programming you can only make Silverlight apps. Most regular windows applications do not use silverlight!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, Silverlight development does resemble WPF programming a lot (afterall, it is a subset of WPF). And we've been doing WPF programming for years now, haven't we? Actually, if you stick to simply placing controls on a page and adding event code it resembles WinForms very much. And that last thing is what I see happening a lot. Many developers create some spaghetti app, which totally messes up tombstoning or page navigation.
Once developers get more comfortable with Windows Phone (Silverlight) programming, they'll see that things like the MVVM pattern, async processing , etc. actually do make sense and can be very helpful. And that's when the good apps are starting to get made.
Secondly the reason for crappy apps is entirely microsoft's fault. To get your app published, you need to pay 99$ a year for a developers license and get your identity verified by some thirdparty. After that when you submit an app, it is supposed to get reviewed by a team at microsoft to verify that your app meets many of the app guideliness set (like not crashing!).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In general I think they do a really good job. Of course they had to learn in the beginning and a lot of faults were made. But the test department is getting better and better. The reports you get when an app fails certification are often very detailed.
Don't forget they check apps against the Guidelines. I agree there are a lot of stupid apps (Peace Sign app, anyone?). But those apps do follow the Guidelines.
Crashes are hard to predict and it's not that easy to test for them. Personally, I haven't experienced much app crashing on my device. In fact, I've seen more apps crash on my iOS devices than on my WP7.
Microsoft has said they collect crash dumps from all apps on the phone (at least, if you've opted in for that). I hope that someday they'll give us developers access to those dumps, so we can do post-mortem analysis of our app's crashes.
But lately the amount of **** apps that have been appearing on the app marketplace makes me think they are just auto approving anything without even checking to see if it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally disagree. The apps may be not to your liking, but most of them do work according to the Guidelines. And did you give feedback to the developers of those apps? They often actually listen!
Hey Guys,
A lot of the mobilephone blogs today are buzzing with the RuFraud Malware that was detected by Lookout Mobile and later taken down by Google from Android Market. About 22 odd apps which included apps & games too. According to Google, the end-user can see the services the apps will use before installing it in Permissions, but I usually don't go through them while installing as do most other end-users.
Now my concern is, if I've installed one of these "malicious" apps without knowledge and I want to detect that and delete them off the phone, is there any way to do so? I've performed a full-scan (SD card also) with avast! Mobile Security BETA (which btw, is kickass) but it hasn't detected anything.
I could also go through the Privacy Advisor feature on it, but that would mean me checking one-app-at-a-time which may take a while seeing as I have over 400 apps.
Anyway to detect the malware that apparently sends bulk premium SMS and racks up a huge bill? I don't have premium TXT enabled on my service since I am on Prepay & usually don't send any premium TXT but it would be nice knowing that my phone is malware free.
Any inputs would be appreciated.
well, i don't do any banking on my phone, i'm on pay as you go with the BEST mobile network...Three.co.uk...so i just whack on 15 quid a month and get unlimited everything......so i personally couldn't give a to** if any malware get's on my phone....
....nothing to get off my phone, unless they like sexy birds dressed in santa outfits, then i'm screwed, coz i'll cry if i lose them
I'd say, chill, don't be too paranoid.....b4 you download and install, look at reviews of apps......if it's only recently been uploaded to market and has no/not many reviews....google it first.
I allegedly have warez markets on my phone....allegedly.....and have never had a problem.
All I use my phone for is 99.999999% of the time browsing bulls**t on the web, messing about with fun apps, very rarely use texting or calls......so not worried.
But if your one of those that uses your phone for business/work/banking/etc...and have credit/debit cards stuff stored on there, then google the f**k out of any new app with no or few reviews....get 4,000 different virus and malware scanners on there.
Oh god, i'm dronning on and don't even know what i'm talking about now....arrghhhhh.
matt
w3bhax said:
Hey Guys,
A lot of the mobilephone blogs today are buzzing with the RuFraud Malware that was detected by Lookout Mobile and later taken down by Google from Android Market. About 22 odd apps which included apps & games too. According to Google, the end-user can see the services the apps will use before installing it in Permissions, but I usually don't go through them while installing as do most other end-users.
Now my concern is, if I've installed one of these "malicious" apps without knowledge and I want to detect that and delete them off the phone, is there any way to do so? I've performed a full-scan (SD card also) with avast! Mobile Security BETA (which btw, is kickass) but it hasn't detected anything.
I could also go through the Privacy Advisor feature on it, but that would mean me checking one-app-at-a-time which may take a while seeing as I have over 400 apps.
Anyway to detect the malware that apparently sends bulk premium SMS and racks up a huge bill? I don't have premium TXT enabled on my service since I am on Prepay & usually don't send any premium TXT but it would be nice knowing that my phone is malware free.
Any inputs would be appreciated.
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Best advice is to look at the permissions the app wants. You say mist end users don't, well then they get what they deserve really. Not being mean its just that if you keep important info in your phone then you should be more careful about what you install as a simple uninstall may not remove any malware that was installed by the app. This reason is a huge deal for Android users. Too many people wanting simple and easy and well we all know Linux based OS are neither
zelendel said:
Best advice is to look at the permissions the app wants. You say mist end users don't, well then they get what they deserve really. Not being mean its just that if you keep important info in your phone then you should be more careful about what you install as a simple uninstall may not remove any malware that was installed by the app. This reason is a huge deal for Android users. Too many people wanting simple and easy and well we all know Linux based OS are neither
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Yeah, I hear you. I usually don't check permissions cuz I install apps & uninstall them after I'm done with them. For eg: a game, etc. So yeah. I did find my Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit app that I paid for on Market, infact has SMS permissions. It says "malicious apps may send SMS to premium numbers" lol when I downloaded this app, it said the dev was Electronic Arts too.
I've read an article recently (forgot the link and where, my memory is horrible) stating that creators of viruses (Malware specifically if i remember correctly.) are starting to focus in on the Android OS more and more ...
Windows gets major viruses because its easy to write viruses for, and the amount of people possible to infect is outrageous.
People don't usually write for OS's like Linux/Unix because its more difficult and they don't affect as many users...
I know most responses to these types of questions are "It's a matter of opinion", so I'm looking for responses from people that know a little something about malware, how it works, and what will work best to protect my Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch.
I want to know what experienced programmers and developers think the best Mobile Security would be for our android devices.
I don't care about how much system resources it uses.
I've been using ESET Mobile Security as the 30 day trial and i likes its options. Plus, it has advanced heuristics, which helps catch viruses that are not in the virus definitions received when updating.
I'm looking for an antivirus that has a high detection rate, but low false-positives. I did some research and it was found that Avast! is one of the most trusted, plus its free. But i also go by the motto "You get what you pay for"...
Another thing I want is an antivirus that will protect Operah Mobile, and not just the stock browser. Avast seems to only protect the default browser.
Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.
In my opinion it's not worth it to run antivirus on our phone unless you are going to be doing alot of piracy of apps .... If you only get apps from market Google catches must stuff t really fast .... Read descriptions on apps you download and don't pirate games and such you should never need avast out such to slow down your phone ...
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Epix4G said:
In my opinion it's not worth it to run antivirus on our phone unless you are going to be doing alot of piracy of apps .... If you only get apps from market Google catches must stuff t really fast .... Read descriptions on apps you download and don't pirate games and such you should never need avast out such to slow down your phone ...
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I use my phone for both business and recreational use. If i get a movie file sent to me from a friend and i don't know where he got it from, i want some kind of protection.
I understand that an antivirus on Android phones is usually an overkill... But i will be kicking myself in the ass if a password to my email ends up being compromised.
I understand that Android phones hardly ever have apps that contain viruses, but based upon that article i ready (I really wish i'd have kept it) its becoming a problem, although not a big problem.
I just want to be protected. For all i know, i could open an excel spreadsheet that i received from a spoofed email address that contains a virus.
You see my dilemma.... So lets start talking about which anti viruses are the most effective.
Regardless,
Thanks for you response.
Anything malicious can only be in the form of an app, because of the Linux structure. Permissions have to be enabled for any R/W access. So the prior recommendation of staying away from pirated apps will suffice.
Also, news articles prey on sensationalism to encourage reading the article. Don't believe everything you read.
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What the last person said!!! If you get a movie file that has a virus most likely its written for windows anyway and will not do anything to you're phone. Also no movie file, pic file, or file in general can gain permissions that the app using it does not have. So the biggest thing is making sure the apps you download are legit.
There are a few bugs and flaws like with htc sense where a malicious app can gain access to things because HTC sense logs things it should not. TW does not have those problems now that CIQ is gone.
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I don't run any kind of anti-virus. Even on my PC. If you stay away from anything shady, keep a throwaway gmail account for anything online you're not 100% sure about and pay attention to where things are coming from, you'll be all set. Unless there is some reason that somebody would want to hack into your phone specifically, then it's just random crap that will hurt you. If you don't know where the movie file your friend send you came from, don't open it.
Ok. So everything that you guys said I about apps being the main way to get infected, I completely agree on.
But what about websites? I'm sure sites, especially mobile websites, have some kind of way to get in through some type of Malware/spyware.
The best way to never get a virus is to watch where you download from and be wary of any sites you go to. I know this. But i use my phone frequently, browse the internet frequently, and I know that all kinds of sites have crap on them. All of them can't JUST be for windows OS. What about websites that specialize in stuff for Android phones?
Also... Can't QR Codes from websites contain malicious things?
Call me paranoid. Call me OCD. But i like things a certain way and i'm just trying to find out what I can do to ensure nothing happens on my phone that i don't approve of.
exitprogram said:
Also... Can't QR Codes from websites contain malicious things?
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I don't really think so, since it's basically pointing you to a webpage. If it points to an app you have to choose to install it from there.
It's very hard (if the end user pays attention) to actually give someone a virus.
If your downloading all your apps legit from the 'Play store' you're going to be fine 99% of the time.
I think the worst we have seen so far is status bar spam anyhow.
The only thing that an antivirus is gonna do is use up more memory on your phone.
So what you guys are telling me is...
#1 Antiviruses of any kind for an Android Phone are completely useless.
#2 These companies wrote Antivirus/Security Apps.... FREE, for no reason.
#3 Their is no possibility of anything getting infected when connecting your device to a PC or Mac.
Well. I guess I was being either way too paranoid, or you guys are wrong and don't even consider the fact that you could already be infected. I mean, how would you even know your phone hasn't been compromised and people are waiting for you to make a credit card purchase? If they want it, do you think they'd advertise it and TELL you or let it be KNOWN they've written something for it? No. They will keep it quiet so they can steal your information without you knowing it. I mean, We can't even get updates on unreleased ROMS! How do you think the hacker community deals with the viruses that they create? Make a forum about it and let Norton add it to its virus definitions? As I've said, i read an article about it, and where there is smoke, there is usually fire.
There are exploits on every device out there. I don't care what it is. People just don't take the time to write them all if the user base isn't big enough to justify the effort. But it doesn't mean they aren't out there.
Did you know gas pumps have been tampered with to save debit card transactions, along with PIN numbers, and then downloaded wirelessly by the criminal via laptop? This was not a small amount of numbers, either.
Sh*t, i didn't even know my gmail got hacked until i checked my sent box and saw spam messages being sent from my account.
I guess this is why people say it is a matter of opinion.
Didn't mean to start a "Politics" type of debate.
I will just keep using ESET Mobile Security since that is what I deem fit.
Thanks for all of your guys's input.
Most virus for Android will request su permissions to actually do any real. Damage considering only a small portion of. The Android users ever. Root their devices the time it takes to write a virus is almost wasted by the cracker, not hacker as hackers are actually coders crackers are the malicious form of hackers, coming from cracking the securities/passwords to steal info, and most ppl who root know what to look for and what to do if they get infected.. Mobile security companies don't write their apps for free, they get ad revenue from the ads in the free apps or you pay 1-10$ to get rid of ads so nothing is. Done for free, the worst virus ever created for Android was CiQ as it logged and sent almost everything you did on your device to who knows what 3rd party companies. So more or less your best antivirus for Android is you
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They are "tampering" with credit cards at gas pumps and ATMs, by creating a separate magnetic reader and putting it over top of the reader already present. Not by any software hacking.
No one has said that PC's and Macs are immune from malicious apps.
GNu/Linux is a completely separate security suite vs a PC.
On a PC, any app that is "clicked" will immediately have access to the registry. By which you can change user permissions and application permissions. And the filesystem is immediately available to do whatever the code wants to do. And by proxy, any file accessed by the application also has no limitation to the damage it can wreak. That's how mp3's carry viruses. They are attached to files that would normally have access to the more secure registry keys. Firewalls are made to limit access to the registry. That is a necessity and why people trust security programs. Their software requires it.
Whereas, in Linux, the kernel is seperated from the OS and applications are kept in a sandbox completely seperate from the OS's filesystem. You have to physically allow "permissions" which dictate how far that application can reach. Files do not have any R/W access to the filesystem. The OS just reads and views them. It is not impossible to get in this way, but it is highly unlikely and no known exploits have been found in the wild.
So for anything malicious, you are allowing the corruption, and the only way to know is to only deal with trusted sources.
And to answer your question, Security companies make the software because they can. They are making ad revenue just for you loading the app. And it helps with piece of mind having a repository of known malicious apps. No one has said they aren't what they are advertised, they are. But they are also resource hogs, and unneeded if you understand what is going to be bad content.
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I hear what you guys are saying. As far as security for an Android phone goes, just be careful and don't install anything from anywhere that you don't trust.
But like i said.... What about when connecting your phone to your PC? Couldn't something be laying dormant on a windows machine and infect an android device? I'll just be paying more attention to what i allow super user permissions to. (Not that i don't already)
Since the vital portion of the OS are kept separate or are "sandboxed" in a way... I will have to ALLOW these things, before they cause damage, right? Or did i already "allow" them when i installed the app and agreed to all of the things they have access to? Like when it sais "This app can read call history, access contacts, etc" ... I know that some apps i install seem to have access to things that have nothing to do with its functionality. Like why would a game need access to Contacts?
I think i ran across some kind of security app that has a firewall that will restrict outgoing and incoming connections for any app. I will probably just use something a long those lines to ensure none of my sensitive information is leaving the phone.
Thanks again! These are the responses that i was looking for.
exitprogram said:
I think i ran across some kind of security app that has a firewall that will restrict outgoing and incoming connections for any app. I will probably just use something a long those lines to ensure none of my sensitive information is leaving the phone.
Thanks again! These are the responses that i was looking for.
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This APP is actually an antivirus w/firewall. Its Avast. Its free.
I think the "Freeze" option in Titanium Backup would have a similar effect, but you have to pay for that feature.
Even if your not concerned with getting a virus... At least you can control the data that apps send to and from your phone.
It also could be helpful if you download an app a buddy said his friend created and your a little paranoid about it. Or if the app isn't available from your carriers market and you need to download it by other means.
Anyway. This should suffice as far as the security i (was) looking for.
Now i know viruses can't just run rampant on Linux/Unix based system like Android. But JUST IN CASE, i will restrict all apps from communicating to the outside world using that firewall =)
You guys have been very helpful and very informative and even refrained from being d*cks .... Amazing! =)
Thanks guys.
security
what about security from another person hacking into the phone. I have a disgruntled ex-wife that constantly hacks into my phone, fowards my texts and email to people and displays pictures of her for me to see when I turn my phone on. How do I stop this? to me this is much more important than a virus. A phone can always be wiped clean, but a hacker can still get in.
Jerry
jjdellorusso said:
what about security from another person hacking into the phone. I have a disgruntled ex-wife that constantly hacks into my phone, fowards my texts and email to people and displays pictures of her for me to see when I turn my phone on. How do I stop this? to me this is much more important than a virus. A phone can always be wiped clean, but a hacker can still get in.
Jerry
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Did you try calling the cops? That's more than one law she's breaking.
Take a look at this
Http://www.itworld.com/security/267484/android-apps-dont-need-permission-see-your-data
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Also for your reviews check this one out
www.droid-life.com/2012/03/07/over-...nly-7-have-malware-detection-rate-of-over-90/
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Avast!™ Mobile Security in the Google® Play™ Store (formerly the Android® Market™)
Avast!™ Mobile Security in the Google® Play™ Store (formerly the Android® Market™)
Avast!™ Mobile Security in the Google® Play™ Store (formerly the Android® Market™)
Avast!™ Mobile Security in the Google® Play™ Store (formerly the Android® Market™)
Avast!™ Mobile Security in the Google® Play™ Store (formerly the Android® Market™)
Umm... did I make my point clear?
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