Viruses on Android: antivirus software comparison

Earlier, we already got acquainted with the so-called 'viruses' and learned how to warn ourselves against this scourge. Now we need to talk about antivirus programs, I think for many users. like me, when choosing an antivirus, my eyes just run wild in Goole Play. I set myself this difficult choice of a suitable antivirus and propose to read about the history of searching for a 'virus' on the Internet.

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In the past, we have talked about virus prevention and gave you some tips on how to keep yourself safe. But still, many users do not trust themselves, and some, for example, have children who are distinguished by their ability to 'poke' anywhere, it is to these people that I highly recommend installing an antivirus.

I was faced with a difficult task – to find several free candidate applications for comparison. I chose for a long time, mainly focused on more or less eminent developers, according to user reviews and on the rating in the market. As a result, I chose four antivirus programs: Dr. Web, Avira, antivirus applications from McAfee and Avast.

In order to check how each antivirus performs its duty, I had to do a rather strange thing – I went to the very jungle of the Internet in search of an “infection”, but then I faced a very big problem. While searching for the 'infection', I was quite surprised and convinced that the security problem Android was very, very much exaggerated. I've come across a lot of banners that seem to be about to let me download a 'virus', but no. But I stumbled upon a very aggressive marketing of the UC Browser. Screenshot_2015-09-19-23-53-05

After clicking on some suspicious link, I came across this ad, such a banner may well panic an ordinary user. The 'refresh browser' button leads to the UC Browser page on Google Play, so it doesn't do any harm, you are simply forced to install this browser, but after that I have a very negative attitude towards the developer. But this topic is for another material.

Only after an hour and a half of purposeful search for any kind of malicious program, I still succeeded. I came across a certain app market, which, in addition to quite common and safe programs, is full of malware, supposedly containing adult material. I used several malicious apk-files from this source for testing antiviruses.

For all these experiments, I used my old tablet, after all, it's a little scary to do such a thing on the phone.

I must say right away that I do not consider additional functionality not related to security to be positive features for an antivirus application, rather the opposite. For example, McAfee antivirus, it contains a battery optimizer and a simple task manager, it clutters up the application, after all, its main task is to protect the device, and everything else is absolutely unnecessary.

Now, after a rather lengthy preface, let's move on to a more detailed examination of each antivirus.

Dr. Web light

The application is available for free on Google Play, but the developer has a more advanced version of Dr.Web Security Space Life, which additionally contains antispam, anti-theft, firewall and much more, which is of little interest to us, but the full version costs 2,600 rubles, so I think few people are willing to pay that amount for very dubious functionality.

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The free version has a certain security monitor SplDer Guard, which protects the system in real time, in addition to this, there is a system scanner, which, for some reason, does not have a schedule setting, you need to check the phone manually every time. One of the pleasant features is scanning the contents of archives. Screenshot_2015-09-20-00-38-12

And now about its main function – about protection. Dr.Web did not react to the download of the malicious application with the protection monitor turned on, he was also silent on the attempt to install it and let the 'virus' be installed calmly, only during a manual scan of the device did it detect this apk file containing malicious code. And so with all three files, when using Dr, Web, you need to force scan every downloaded file.

Antivirus from McAfee

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The interface of the application is quite simple and does not look very good, to put it mildly, it already has a very strong spirit Android version 2.x As I said earlier, this is the most cluttered application of all. The developers, I don’t understand why, added to it a certain battery optimizer and a small button that hangs on top of all windows, you can drag it and change its location, and when you click, a small window pops up, as in the screenshot below.

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Of course, this icon can be safely removed in the settings, but not every user will climb and look for how to remove it. I don't think it's worth saying that this causes discomfort and annoyance, because there is no practical use for this button.

Of the pleasant features, it should be noted the setting of automatic scanning of the device, you can set up a daily or weekly scan and some kind of real-time scan.

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When downloading malicious applications, McAfee does not show any signs of operation, when trying to install it is also silent, and, what is most strange, it was silent even during manual scanning. That is, he simply missed malicious applications, which gives rise to doubt about the antivirus capabilities of the application.

Avira Antivirus Security

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Avira greets us with a pretty nice interface. The application has protection of personal data, a blacklist, a safe Internet and more, which, again, we are not interested in. We are interested in the 'anti-virus' part of the program. It cannot scan downloaded files in real time, but it is possible to configure the scan scheduler for every day.

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Of course, when downloading malicious applications, he was silent, since real-time monitoring is not declared in the capabilities of the antivirus, when trying to install a virus, there is also no reaction, but during manual scanning it perfectly detects all threats.

Antivirus from Avast Software

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The most worthy, as it seemed to me, candidate. Outwardly, it looks pretty simple. Immediately after the installation, he said that the included ability to install applications from unknown sources, that is, installing applications bypassing Google Play, poses a security risk – this is the only antivirus. who reported it. Another surprise was the scan for the security of the connected Wi-Fi network, for example, he told me that the password for the router is very simple.

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Avast also made me happy when downloading malware, immediately after the virus was downloaded, he said that it was a suspicious file and offered to delete it. When trying to install, it blocks the installation with the message 'it contains potentially malicious code'. I think it is unnecessary to say that when he manually scanned the device he detected all the threats.

Conclusion

It is rather risky to say which antivirus is better, because each developer has its own virus databases and I cannot vouch how this or that antivirus will behave in different situations, but after this experiment, I could recommend an antivirus from Avast, because some programs even a manual search did not find a threat, but he reported and offered to eliminate the malware immediately after downloading. So I have a much greater degree of confidence in him than in the rest. And do not forget that these are not all antiviruses, there are several dozen, if not hundreds of them in the market.

I highly recommend installing antivirus software on children's devices, be it a mobile phone or tablet. Small children are not very attentive and can climb where they don't need to. And periodically look yourself what the child is doing on his device, only if it is his device, you should not violate the child's personal space.

That's all for today. Write in the comments what antivirus you use and why, I think it will be useful for everyone to read.

Thank you for attention!

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