[Closed] do you need anti virus software for a smart phone??

bumping...im worried!

My first instinct would be no, at the present time. However here is an article.

In the future I think it will be a necessity

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/features/security/3319310/do-i-need-antivirus-software-for-my-smartphone/

Depends what you're looking at 😉

how come its different to a pc then? its still searching with google etc??

how come its different to a pc

Completely different OS, and lots of different OSs on huge numbers of different devices. Viruses for Windows PCs are prevalent, simply because there's bloomin billions of 'em! And an element of people hating MS I reckon 🙂

Not on an iPhone. You probably should on an Android though.
Or at least exercise a high degree of caution.

ive got avg on my android....cant hurt

Depends what you class as a virus. It's different from a PC in a number of ways, primarily because each bit of software operated in it's own little sealed sphere with limited interaction outside that allowed by the main system. You need to be sure you don't install software that has permission to access stuff you don't want it to - i.e. why would a game need access to your contacts etc (they use it to harvest addresses and numbers) but AFAIK there's no virus's about that will cripple your phone. And even if there were you could just re-flash it. And it's based on Linux, which means there's a smaller number of potential threats than for the likes of windows based PCs.

The main issue with antivirus to me is the damage to the battery life that TSR virus protection will cause.

Ohh, so if you search sensibly you could be fairly safe i guess?

You need to be sure you don't install software that has permission to access stuff you don't want it to - i.e. why would a game need access to your contacts etc

The trouble is that it is relatively easy to either mask your nasty intentions with more plausible ones (e.g. a game claims it wants access to your contacts to find your friends in multiplayer, but also uploads them all to spam lists) or just to imitate [url= http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/254078/android_malware_writers_exploit_instagram_craze_to_distribute_sms_trojan_horse.html ]a well-known app[/url] that users trust.

I use Bitdefender on my Android phone, bought the full version to give peace of mind to wipe the phone remotely should I lose it again.

Samsung has a few remote apps via Samsung Dive so you can locate and wipe your phone if lost...not answering the OP's question but might be handy to know.

Currently, there is no need for virus software, however, I suspect that is going to change in a relatively short period of time (perhaps before end of this year).

Apple has now seen it's first 'large scale' 'virus' and patches are now out (I think) to sort the issue...suspect it won't be that long before the mobile devices also suffer issues (although these will be harder to get on to the device in the first place).

Currently no issues, but be vigilant and don't go installing everything you can on the device.

I'm no phone expert but I spend enough time playing with mine to think I have an idea...

Apple has now seen it's first 'large scale' 'virus' and patches are now out (I think)

What was that? There was a [url= http://www.pcworld.com/article/169405/iphone_virus_what_you_need_to_know.html ]theoretical text message attack in 2009[/url] but a google for "iPhone virus" doesn't show anything newer.

Currently, there is no need for virus software,

I'd say there is on Android. It has been hit quite a few times. Though if you stick to well-known rated apps on the Google Marketplace (or whatever it is called now) then you are obviously a bit safer.

On iPhones the apps are provided by devs that pay for the priviledge and all apps are inspected and approved by Apple, so that attack vector is much much less likely to be an issue. I have no qualms about installing any old random app from the App Store.

Apple has now seen it's first 'large scale' 'virus' and patches are now out (I think)

What was that? There was a theoretical text message attack in 2009 but a google for "iPhone virus" doesn't show anything newer.

Most (all?) Android 'viruses' come from either downloading well-known software from third party sites, or bobbins software. So long as you always use the Market and don't have a penchant for apps proclaiming to be "Brittney Spears Nude Screensaver" or "Top 100 best farts", you don't need AV on your phone. The only people who say differently are those selling smartphone AV.

100 best farts 😛

wasn't there a large number of macs recently identified with a Trojan ?

http://m.t3.com/news/mac-trojan-still-affected-140000-apple-machines-say-norton

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17623422

So long as you always use the Market and don't have a penchant for apps proclaiming to be "Brittney Spears Nude Screensaver" or "Top 100 best farts", you don't need AV on your phone.

Apparently last year Google started doing virus/malware scans on the apps in Android Marketplace, which resulted in "40 percent drop in the number of downloads of potentially malicious software from the Android Market", so the official marketplace does seem a fair bit safer.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/249271/googles_new_bouncer_targets_android_market_malware.html

wasn't there a large number of macs recently identified with a Trojan ?