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Do you need to download an anti-virus for Android? (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So my workplace is mostly iPhone users and someone asked me what kind of antivirus software I used on my Android, and I said "none" and he flipped out about how unsafe it was. Other people chimed in saying how all androids need antivirus apps and I've never heard of such a thing. I do have ad-blockers and a VPN but never downloaded an antivirus. Should I? If so, what would you recommend? Thanks lemmings, love you.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No amount of antivirus or alternative OSs will save you from unpatched hardware vulnerabilities though. Visiting a malicious web page or downloading a temporarily hostage app from your favorite app store can be enough to allow the bad guys into your device.

Well there's not just prevention. Antivirus software can detect & remove. Also, by this logic, wouldn't that mean there's no point for desktop antiviruses? Seems incorrect to me.

As long as you have a currently supported device and keep it up to date, you shouldn’t ever need antivirus.

And yet sometimes you do need one.

In any case, I never said having one is foolproof. I merely said downloading random apps willy-nilly can increase the risk, sometimes not much at all and other times greatly. It depends entirely on your threat model.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Regarding desktop antivirus, it's often the case where it is not necessary to have. Windows has Windows Defender built-in, and other operating systems have other means to mitigate any type of viruses. There are actually reports of antivirus causing attacks because their hooks are so deep in the operating system.

Even trusted apps and app stores are prone to being malicious. The upstream packages that they use can have a malicious developer or insecure package, and it gets incorporated in the app, then distributed. Thats why it's important to use devices that get hardware/firmware updates to help protect against this. If a rootkit is installed, there is no way to ever get rid of it on your system.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Windows Defender is antivirus application, though, so how is it evidence that antivirus applications are pointless? Also, Defender wasn't always as good as it is. That's only a relatively recent thing.

Also, there are viruses/malware other than rootkits.