[LINK] Android mobile phone antivirus?

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Ivan writes,

> > From my reading of the reports, the implication is that the ‘off’
> > state of a phone is not simply determined. With more complex phones,
> > either malware of other means are able to give the impression that the
> > phone is ‘off’, in spite of some vital circuitry being powered (such as
> > the clock etc).


Can't add anything regards tracking, but it's astonishing how easy it is
to apparently attract mobile phone malware.

I'm fairly sure my current phone has malware. It's a 3 year-old Nokia 3G
($160) and has been very reliable so far. I do NOT use the net or browse
etc with it, just calls & plain text. But 3 weeks ago it started sending
out mystery texts every ten minutes. These don't show in the sent folder.

I didn't change phone settings and have now spent hours checking settings
and deleting old texts all to no avail. Every 10 minutes it tells me it's
sending text to an unknown destination, with unknown content. Now, I keep
it switched off .. and also a new Samsung Galaxy is currently in the post.

Loading data, and, using the Nokia browser for the first time to purchase 
antivirus software from the Nokia online shop doesn't work. It'll see the 
Nokia app shop but the phone refuses to download their antivirus software. 

And, as I said, all I have ever used it for is for calls and texts. Now i
keep it switched off, which is a pain. My first action with the new phone
will probably be to find, purchase and install Android antivirus software. 

But any suggestions as to which Android 4.3 Jelly Bean antivirus, bearing
in mind the following on Wikipedia?

"Android applications run in a sandbox, an isolated area of the system that 
does not have access to the rest of the system's resources, unless access 
permissions are explicitly granted by the user when the application is 
installed. Before installing an application, the Play Store displays all 
required permissions: a game may need to enable vibration or save data to 
an SD card, for example, but should not need to read SMS messages or access 
the phonebook. After reviewing these permissions, the user can choose to 
accept or refuse them, installing the application only if they accept.

The sandboxing and permissions system lessens the impact of vulnerabilities 
and bugs in applications, but developer confusion and limited documentation 
has resulted in applications routinely requesting unnecessary permissions, 
reducing its effectiveness. Several security firms, such as Lookout Mobile 
Security, AVG Technologies and McAfee have released antivirus software for 
Android devices. This software is ineffective as sandboxing also applies to 
these such applications, limiting their ability to scan the deeper system 
for threats."

Cheers,
Stephen


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