So, what about malware on the Play Store? Again, that depends on what you mean by malware. Unless you’re a diplomat or have high-level security clearance, it’s unlikely anyone would bother with such a scheme.

That’s not to say it’s impossible for Android to have a severe zero-day bug that allows someone to sneak apps don’t your phone, but that would have to be an extremely delicate, costly operation. Even then, there are security settings that need to be manually bypassed. On Android, you have to physically tap on a notification to install an APK downloaded from a source outside the Play Store.

These “drive-by downloads” aren’t feasible on Android without a pre-existing infection. We’ve all been programmed what to expect by PC malware, which can sneak onto your system simply because you visited the wrong website with a vulnerable browser. You still want to avoid those, of course, but malware scanners aren’t going to help.Īndroid and other mobile platforms have their roots in the modern era when programmers understood the dangers of the internet. “Malware” can encompass milder threats like apps that harvest personal information or trigger pop-up ads. Shocking and upsetting, right? They can get away with it because true Android viruses that take over your device are not as common as you’d expect. They just use white/blacklists to flag apps, which is ineffective and makes them little more than advertising platforms with some fake buttons. In a 2019 report from AV-Comparatives, we learned that most of the antivirus apps on Android don’t even do anything to check apps for malicious behavior. You’ve probably already got what you need. However, Android is by its very nature more secure than a desktop computer, so maybe you don’t need these security apps. Security firms are usually pushing a virus scanning app of some sort. These reports are always based in fact, but they can overstate the real risks of picking up a piece of malware, and the definition of malware can be quite vague. You can’t spend much time on the internet without hearing about some new piece of Android malware that’s going to definitely, 100 percent wreck your phone. Android has grown to become the largest computing platform on the planet, and that makes it a target.

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