Antivirus software for tablet?

eddy

I bought a smartphone some years ago, and installed the paid for version of Kaspersky. which Barclays recommended and offered free to customers (until this week), and Kaspersky never found any issue.

Months after I bought the phone, someone posted feedback on the sales website stating that the phone came with malware pre-installed, and saying that Malwarebytes would identify the malware.

I installed the free version of Malwarebytes, and it did find the malware, so it can be useful to use antivirus software.

As regards my phone, I emailed the manufacturer's support, and they emailed me steps to download software to root my phone, download a later version of android, and then upgrade the phone to that version.

System

eddy wrote: »

I bought a smartphone some years ago, and installed the paid for version of Kaspersky. which Barclays recommended and offered free to customers (until this week), and Kaspersky never found any issue.

Months after I bought the phone, someone posted feedback on the sales website stating that the phone came with malware pre-installed, and saying that Malwarebytes would identify the malware.

I installed the free version of Malwarebytes, and it did find the malware, so it can be useful to use antivirus software.

As regards my phone, I emailed the manufacturer's support, and they emailed me steps to download software to root my phone, download a later version of android, and then upgrade the phone to that version.

Something not right there in the sense that a phone that comes from a company is told on their website that it has malware pre-installed and another customer runs antivirus/ malware software to find said problem. The company then tells that customer to root the phone to fix the issue?

That old saying I mentioned earlier of Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted comes to mind!

well I'm updating it to closing the stable door after the horse has bolted and lived a healthy long life and dies comes to mind.

eddy

john22 wrote: »

Something not right there in the sense that a phone that comes from a company is told on their website that it has malware pre-installed and another customer runs antivirus/ malware software to find said problem. The company then tells that customer to root the phone to fix the issue?

That is exactly what happened. The phone came with malware pre-installed, whether by the manufacturer or seller who was on Amazon Marketplace.
Another purchaser later put feedback on Amazon regarding the malware. I contacted the manufacturer's support because the phone was out of warranty, and they emailed me the steps to root and upgrade the phone.

pennypincher2013

Thank you all. This thread has been enlightening.

System

eddy wrote: »

That is exactly what happened. The phone came with malware pre-installed, whether by the manufacturer or seller who was on Amazon Marketplace.
Another purchaser later put feedback on Amazon regarding the malware. I contacted the manufacturer's support because the phone was out of warranty, and they emailed me the steps to root and upgrade the phone.

That’s a complete failure of the manufacturer or seller of the phone. I would not be buying anything from whoever is to blame. Definitely not downloading antivirus software to check for malware that should never have been there in the first place.

eddy

john22 wrote: »

Definitely not downloading antivirus software to check for malware that should never have been there in the first place.

Each person is entitled to take as much a blinkered or head in the sand approach as he or she likes.

Of course malware "should never have been there in the first place", but in real life the unexpected does happen. Therefore, it can be useful to have antivirus.

In the case of the smartphone I mentioned, purchasers who took the wise precaution of installing an antivirus such as Malwarebytes would have been alerted to the malware straightaway and returned their phone for a full refund.

Those purchasers would have been glad that they decided to install the antivirus.

System

eddy wrote: »

Each person is entitled to take as much a blinkered or head in the sand approach as he or she likes.

Of course malware "should never have been there in the first place", but in real life the unexpected does happen. Therefore, it can be useful to have antivirus.

In the case of the smartphone I mentioned, purchasers who took the wise precaution of installing an antivirus such as Malwarebytes would have been alerted to the malware straightaway and returned their phone for a full refund.

Those purchasers would have been glad that they decided to install the antivirus.

Of course the unexpected does happen but viruses and malware should never be on a new product. I would still be !!!!ed even if it was second hand and the fix should be the unit is replaced not installing antivirus software or rooting because that just breeds fear and ignorance to the point that people install it and in some cases pay for it when thats not the solution.

AndyPix

Not sure why my posts got removed - And i still want to know which manuacturer advises to root thir own phone !!
That is simply crazy

SeanDigiSave

I use Vipre across all devices. Very good, cheap. Low load. Doesn't overload your device with processes. Always gets my vote.

AndyPix

^^ Good in what respect ?


What viruses has it detected/removed from your phone or tablet ?


You do realise that these "antivirus software" CANNOT scan the file system of a phone or tablet ??!!
You do realise that it CANNOT scan any processes that are running
You do realise that it CANNOT detect the behaviour of other applications or know what they are doing ??


**** please read the above again because it is very important ****


One is left wondering what it is that they CAN actually do


One is wondering how on earth these things would be able to detect "viruses" :huh:


One is left with a distinct taste of snakeoil in the back of their throat.


That's if one isnt tricked by the flashy user interface and clever wording of course