Mobile anti-virus not needed: Google
Full article here: http://bit.ly/TET7VpThe majority of Android smartphone and tablet users do not need to install anti-virus and other security apps to protect them, despite dire warnings from security companies selling such products, Google’s head of Android security says.
Adrian Ludwig, the lead engineer for Android security at Google, said there was "a bit of a misperception" in how the company reviewed apps for its Google Play store in comparison with other stores. He also said those who used security software on their phones would likely get no protection from it. "I think ... paying for a product that you will probably never actually receive protection from is not a rational reduction of risk – but people buy things for lots of reasons." Mr Ludwig said every Android app goes through an automated system that checked for issues, and verified apps before they were made available on the app store.
"By the time a user goes to install an app they’ve had ... the best review of that application that is possible," he said. The risk of potentially harmful applications ending up on users’ devices was therefore "significantly overstated" and the actual risk of a damaging app being installed was "extraordinarily low", he said. "Certainly if you compare [the] Android [mobile operating system] to any desktop operating system, it's orders of magnitude different.
He rejected reports from numerous security vendors showing Android was a hotbed for malicious software compared to other mobile platforms, saying the firms often presented their statistics in a misleading way. He said the numbers didn't show how many users were actually affected by potentially harmful applications. The reports instead focused on how many potentially malicious apps existed, and not whether they were ever installed by users.
Apple chief Tim Cook recently used industry figures at the company's Worldwide Developers conference to take a swipe at Android, saying it "dominates" the mobile malware market.
"It's a convenient way for [security firms] to [count] it like that because it never goes down. If you just count that number the world always looks worse, which [is what] sells their product," Mr Ludiwig said. "The way we talk about potentially harmful applications on Android is how many users are affected," he said. "If nobody ever installs that application, does it matter? If [a potentially harmful application] never got into [the] Google Play [store], does it matter? That’s what we focus on."
Users who chose to use anti-virus on their devices would be no better off, he said.
Full article here: http://bit.ly/TET7Vp
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