Anti Virus for Android

What are you using?

Nothing

Is your handset old and not getting any more security updates?

Do you recklessly sideload apps?

If not, don't bother.

Absolutely nothing.

Nothing.

What are you using?

Nothing other than scepticism and common sense. Don't click on stuff I'm not expecting, don't visit dodgy sites, don't install dodgy apps.

Nowt

Nothing other than scepticism and common sense. Don’t click on stuff I’m not expecting, don’t visit dodgy sites, don’t install dodgy apps.

Wot he said.

TBF, I didn't even know that antivirus stuff for Android existed

The free AVG one. I'm not paying 😁

Ok so this is a pleasant surprise.

STW in agreement, colour me shocked

What they all said ^^ I've never had an anti-virus for any andriod device.

Nothing.

I'm going to sail into the wind slightly here.

In the PC world I'm increasingly of the mind that conventional AV is largely pointless. It has its place, and the corporate world is a different case again, but for most home computers today the biggest threat is... I was once asked at the end of a presentation, if I could make one change which would drastically improve security what would it be, I replied "amputate everyone's right index finger."

The nature of the Android system though, it's still kinda wild west and it is a lot easier to screw up. I would 100% agree with other posters who have said that you don't need AV on a phone, but "need" is doing some heavy lifting here.

How old is the phone? Is it still getting system updates? How reliable is the user? Are they likely to jump onto the app store to download Chrome and click on Crome instead? Then reply "yes to all" when asked for 57 permissions?

You don't need AV, but it might be a sensible precaution in some use cases. Because consider what's on your phone these days: all your cached passwords, a banking app, your MFA stuff, your "reset my password" email account set to auto-login...

I can't recommend a specific product as I don't use them myself. Even my technophobe girlfriend I'd trust to ask me if something looked dodgy. I wouldn't particularly want to be paying a recurring subscription though.

I don't do AV for my phone

For my home PC I trust Windows defender it's as good as anything else out there because MS, love them or hate them, have a lot of computing power and people doing analysis of threat and pump out AV signature maintenance all the time, they do this for all their corporate customers and consumers get the benefit as collateral because it's in their interest to have personal protected also (ecosystem innit)

Cougar makes a good point here "Because consider what’s on your phone these days: all your cached passwords, a banking app, your MFA stuff, your “reset my password” email account set to auto-login…" but the answer to this isn't AV, it's a password manager and being really careful with the password for your email as this is the entry point if someone tries to hack you. Also be smart about where you use your email address and don't lose your phone

but the answer to this isn’t AV, it’s a password manager and being really careful with the password for your email as this is the entry point if someone tries to hack you. Also be smart about where you use your email address and don’t lose your phone

Oh, absolutely. My point really was "don't dismiss it out of hand" because there may be a use case. I'd hate to see a "you all told me I didn't need AV and now my phone's been hacked" thread in a couple of weeks time. But practising good IT hygiene is a far longer conversation than "do I need AV?" I've literally watched people intentionally open malware because they wanted to "see what it did," AV ain't going to help much there!

Also, anyone who doesn't have security set on their phone lock screen needs to give their heads a wobble. 😁

Good info, thanks all

Norton, still gives me the shivers.