In matters of fullfilment of security requirements on Android there are opinions for all tastes. There are, on the one hand, those who believe that there is nothing to fear as long as you have care with what you download and, on the other hand, those who believe that a system without antivirus will be always touchy from getting infections. Not long ago the news broke that various apparently legitimate applications carried malware. News of this type, on the other hand, is repeated periodically in the specialized Android media. We collect the opinion of various experts on this issue to see which of the two assumptions is correct.
The middle Digital Trends has asked several security experts if it is necessary to make use of antivirus in Android systems or if it is simply enough to pay attention to the applications that we install on our devices, to keep them free of viruses and malware.
Andrew Marx, CEO of AV-Test, states that antivirus is simply a complement and it does not work on its own, but must be part of a larger package of measures, how can they be doing backups of our systems and make sure we can carry out a remote control of the device in case it is lost.
In this line, Jan Gahura, an Avast executive, believes that the biggest problem we can have in terms of security is that unwanted people have access to our devices, therefore, the possibility of remote control must be ensured. For Gahura, losing a phone or tablet with our data is more problematic than losing the house keys.
The concept of virus has evolved into malware. The first was more typical of desktop operating systems and was intended to end up blocking the system, while the second is typical of the mobile era and seeks steal the data of the device owner. On Android, although there is always a risk of infection, Google Play is giving big steps in favor of security and its applications as a general rule are perfectly reliable. However, you have to look out what we install from other places, since it is possible that applications that have not passed Google's controls are prone to carrying malware.
Cris Dibona, who is in charge of open source programs at Google, believes that it may be of interest from some points of view to promote the image that Google Play is a source of infections, especially to companies that are dedicated to sell antivirus.
However, since security applications protect Android from several levels (through backup, anti-theft and anti-virus), it will always be helpful. But experts believe that these applications they must improve a lot and become not something that is advisable to have, but something that should be had because they perform their function without leaving any type of fissure.