Best anti-virus /protection for s4?

toby2111

Wife just got an s4,it's a smashing phone. She wants good anti virus, malware etc protection. What would be the best apps to download for that?
Also she only has 1GB of data each month which may be enough as we have wifi at home. But do apps in general constantly eat up data even when not in use? And if they do, is there a setting on s4 to prevent them pulling data from the phone?

Banjo String

I kind of think it's a gimmick on phones tbh.

I could be wrong though.

toby2111

Banjo String wrote: »

I kind of think it's a gimmick on phones tbh.

I could be wrong though.

Really? Would've thought some protection was better than none. After all, they are like mini computers. But I'm no expert on these things, hence why I ask here!

Banjo String

toby2111 wrote: »

Really? Would've thought some protection was better than none. After all, they are like mini computers. But I'm no expert on these things, hence why I ask here!

Honestly, I'm not up well enough on the whole android = virus thing, so don't take my input seriously.

There's very little evidence to suggest it though.

Don't bother. If you download all your apps from the play store google is pretty good about removing malware from both the store and peoples handsets when they discover it. (Yes they can pull apps from peoples phones after install). Plus the latest containment measures in selinux in android (4.3) will harden the devices even more from malware.

Android viruses in circulation are limited and their spread is usually isolated. Plus the virus scanners seem to be of limited benefit and chew up your battery.

toby2111

Yeh,I have AVG on my phone and malwarebytes and it seems to slow the phone down particularly when it scanning.Might remove them so.
Any ideas on my other question about apps pulling data constantly?Is that true?

Stormington

Antivirus apps are a waste of time, tbh. I had McAfee on my Xperia P and all it did was slow it down.

Tell her not to click on messages/texts from unknown sources: I recently got something from Daniel on Tango (apparently a legit app). It went straight to the bind as I didn't ask for it.

And not to download porn: she's losing out with the smaller screen on a phone anyway.

But do apps in general constantly eat up data even when not in use? And if they do, is there a setting on s4 to prevent them pulling data from the phone?

If they run in the background they can. You should be able to go into settings -> system -> developer options -> background process limit. You can then choose how many apps you want to run in the background.

I don't know about the S4 but you can usually hold the home key on other phones and it will bring up a menu of recently used apps and you can swipe them away to close them too.

toby2111

Stormington wrote: »

If they run in the background they can. You should be able to go into settings -> system -> developer options -> background process limit. You can then choose how many apps you want to run in the background.

I don't know about the S4 but you can usually hold the home key on other phones and it will bring up a menu of recently used apps and you can swipe them away to close them too.

Don't think she's into porn!!!!
I went into that developer options list that you suggested..whats the best setting-
-No background processes
-At most 1 process
-At most 2
-At most 3
-At most 4

I presume no processes but maybe the phone needs some running to operate properly?

Zillah

As long as you set it to only update apps over wifi then the incidental usage will be trivial. As long as she doesn't use Youtube or similar over her data connection she'll not use a gig of data. Android has the option to monitor your data usage (Settings > Data Usage) and give you an alert when you reach a certain level. It is set to 2GB by default, but you can change that to, say 0.9GB so she knows when she's near her limit. Then she can turn off data in the swipe down menu from the top, or it can even be set to automatically disable data when it reaches the limit.

Don't bother with antivirus on phones.

Stormington

I honestly wouldn't know with an S4 and all the bloatware that Samsung pack on it (eye-tracking, head-nodding, waving and all that gimmicky bolloc*s) and what is needed to run in the background. Suggest she try it with at most 2 or 3 and see what happens. It should be fine.

biko

There's a few free ones if you feel paranoid but tbh it's not needed.
Turn off bluetooth instead.

toby2111

toby2111 wrote: »

Don't think she's into porn!!!!
I went into that developer options list that you suggested..whats the best setting-
-No background processes
-At most 1 process
-At most 2
-At most 3
-At most 4

I presume no processes but maybe the phone needs some running to operate properly?

Don't change anything in that menu if you are not sure what it does. It's mainly for troubleshooting or debugging for developers. There are lots of reasons android runs stuff in the background if you change that setting you might break things.

toby2111

ronoc-OK,I'll leave that setting so,thanks
biko&zillah-thanks for that,I'll prob just not install anti virus.How do I set "only update apps over wifi"?
stormington-Yeh,she wont be using all that gimmicky crap that you mentioned but I dont think I can remove that stuff (unless I root it??...and I wouldn't know how to do that or if its worth it.

coldfire1x

There's a new malwarebytes app in the play store now. I dont use it on my S4 but have it on my nexus tablet. Only installed a week or so back to see how it works. Doesnt seem to drain the battery so its ok for now.

toby2111

Yeh,I had that installed also.When I ran the first scan,the results showed 6 malwares including trojans(which I believe are not good).So I might keep that app,get rid of AVG

Zillah

toby2111 wrote: »

Yeh,I had that installed also.When I ran the first scan,the results showed 6 malwares including trojans(which I believe are not good).So I might keep that app,get rid of AVG

I bet my right eye they were false positives. Where on Earth did it claim six trojans were hiding on a phone? Did you install some Russian porn apps or something?

toby2111

Zillah wrote: »

I bet my right eye they were false positives. Where on Earth did it claim six trojans were hiding on a phone? Did you install some Russian porn apps or something?

I know nothing about these things,thats just what came up after I ran the first scan.As you said,it could be just pure BS on their behalf......and I don't have any Russian porn apps (though you can recommend some if you want!!!)

the_syco

So, what good viruses are there for the Android devices? From what I recall, there was a proof of concept one done a while back, but haven't heard of any since...

Daverk

Using the ESET SECURITY, it detected Trojan virus in a map application that was downloaded from the Google Play store.
Using on my htc one x and Samsung galaxy tab 2 7''.

Daverk

There is some false positives, but better safe than sorry