Do Android users really need to invest in a good anti-virus software for their devices?
According to Chet Wisiewski of Sophos, “It is not terribly widespread outside of China, but the number of malicious apps is increasing dramatically.”
He added that, “In 2010 we saw around 40 threats, in 2011 more than 400. Evidence for 2012 suggests that number will continue to increase. To date the majority of threats are on unofficial/pirate markets, but we have seen several apps make it onto the Google Play store, only to later be discovered and deleted.”
One main problem that Google has is the Android Permission notifier. The latter tells you which features on your phone an app will gain access after you install it. Unfortunately, we don’t have time to read these permissions. It’s a long list which we don’t really understand.
Wisniewski also barred, “The other factor that increases the risk for Android users is the lack of patches that fix the vulnerabilities that are discovered. Even if Google fixes the flaws in the core version of Android, most carriers and phone makers lag far behind integrating the fixes, if they bother at all.”
Image Souce: bestofandroid.com
