With the growth of malware threats on Android, it definitely makes sense to use an antivirus app, but unfortunately, a new study reveals many security apps have miserable detection rates, so you need to choose wisely. Here are the ones that performed best.
AV-Test inspected 41 Android virus scanners against 618 types of malware. Nearly two-thirds of them identified less than 65 per cent of those types of malware — making them unsuitable or unreliable for your mobile security, the firm writes.
The top seven apps, those with green boxes in the chart above, are: Avast, Dr Web, F-Secure, Ikarus, Kaspersky, Zoner and Lookout. “Using one of these apps,” the report says, “means you don’t have to worry about your malware protection.”
If you have a favourite app that did poorly on the AV-Test report (the full PDF test is here) might not mean it’s completely worthless if it has features like remote lock and wipe or data backup, plus there are challenges in testing for active malware threats (the AV-Test used only the most widely known malware families discovered between August and December 2011).
Still, if you were wondering what antivirus app to use on Android, this independent test offers some guidance.
Test: Malware Protection for Android – March 2012 [AV-Test via CNET]
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.