Do we need antivirus for Android tablet?

[Guest FriendofGreece]

Maybe someone could help me with this.

 

I am all confused now. I made some research as to whether I need to install an antivirus for my Android tablet. Some articles say there is no need, because Android already has safeguard features, but if you are using public wifi, it is better to take precautions.

 

I have a tablet I bought just for using with public wifi and on which I have not stored any personal data. I will not even be checking emails or anything, it is just to surf on the Internet reading news, looking at youtube, etc.

 

Should I install an antivirus or is it really not necessary? If necessary, what would be a good free antivirus that you would recommend?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

[admin 31]

This is a good read: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/do-you-need-antivirus-on-android/

 

The short answer is yes (but not just a pure antivirus program), mainly for anti-theft reasons.

[Guest eyoismos]

bottom line, if you ONLY use your tablet to do what you say, and never use anything personal, even your name, or even logon names with passwords, like in this website, that can be trace back to you, or you hook up with a pc for that matter, ..... who gives a flying fart about antivirus. if its lost/stolen, nothing lost ...besides the device. and even if ... etc..... an easy "restore to factory defaults" would resolve the problem anyway

 

but if you do, basically you are asking for trouble ... and although android , a variation of linux by the way ,and by nature is hardly susceptible to virus activity ,like almost non-existent possibility ....  remember one fact .... if its man made, its man unmade, and android is man made ...and many a cel phone that has been "attacked",  bares witness to that

[Guest eyoismos]

by the way .... i make absolutely no distinction between viruses and malware, based on the K.I.S.S. principle  ... i put them all under one category ..... "Nasties"

 

and part of my business is getting rid of nasties and recovering data as a result of these very same "nasties"

[Guest FriendofGreece]

Admin, thanks very much for the link. I actually have read it before thus my confusion. It seems that antivirus is not really necessary unless you want to protect personal data, in which case VPN is what you really need. 

 

But as Eyoismos said, and he is the expert on these things, it is a risk to be without antivirus/anti-malware. Thanks, Eyoismos, for all your tips.

 

This is a new tablet I bought just for public wifi to use for what I said, nothing personal and no logging on or anything. I am not afraid if it is lost because it is not a cell phone where you have personal data. I don't download any app because I don't play games or things like that. Although someone told me there are apps in Google Play like free antivirus. I was wondering whether I should just download from the anti-virus websites themselves, if there are free versions for Android, rather than through Google Play. 

 

I did not know you can wipe out viruses if you do a "restore to factory defaults". That is an excellent thing to know. Although if the virus/malware is really bad, could it block you from making such a restore?

[Guest eyoismos]

in short .... highly unlikely, because the "factory defaults" are usually in the "hard coded" firmware, not the "soft" areas of storage and memory.... not impossible though, but thats why the suppliers have support outlets, etc

[Επισκέπτης]

There is no need for antivirus on an Android tablet. The only way malware can get on it is if you install it. And one way to do that is by installing applications from unverified sources. If you get your apps from Google play the chances to get a malicious app are next to zero since the Google play store release and development process has quite a few safeguards against getting malicious apps into the play store in the first place. And if that happens the apps affected will be removed from the store as soon as they are reported.

[Guest eyoismos]

Simply visiting one of the "Top 100 Dirtiest" websites - without downloading or even clicking anything - could expose your computer to infection and put your personal information into the hands of criminals, anti-virus software company Norton Symantec said.

 

and Java is one of the worst,  dangerous culprits. ActiveX controls is another one

 

but the biggest of all culprits.....human stupidity - typical example .... “Your Computer is Infected” flashing on your screen, ...and believing it blindly

[Guest FriendofGreece]

Yes, Java is bad, but I think you need it for Youtube. Is there a way to block Java except for when you watch Youtube?

 

What are those ActiveX controls, is that an app, do we need them for something and should we block them?

 

I noticed that some Indian news websites are quite dangerous. Just clicking on them could be blocked by the antivirus. It boggles my mind that the Indians would want to put viruses for people who read their news. 

 

I am scared of the free downloading of music that people put in various forums, you never know what you download in addition to the music. Is it safe?

 

I have a question. If I use public wifi, I understand that other people can read what I do on my tablet. However, can they go in my tablet and put viruses in it or download things I don't want, i.e. do they control my tablet, or can they just read my tablet but not do anything?

[Επισκέπτης]

youtube doesn't use JAVA. It relies on html5 video. If you are using a state of the art browser such as Firefox or Chrome that is. If you use some obsolete crap such as IE your videos are played via Flash plugin. Wich is a security risk of its own. Java is mainly used for business apps nowadays and it is quite save, if you know what you are doing. For starters make sure that JAVA, and all other plugins, are set to require explicit user approval to start up. But more importantly: If you are on a PC, don't use IE. Close to 90% of all issues experienced on the windows platform are experienced by Internet Explorer users.

[Guest FriendofGreece]

Ajaxmonkey, thanks for your explanations. 

 

Ah, no wonder I could not watch Youtube on IE. I did not install any Flash on it. Yes, I heard bad things about IE but did not know it is that bad. Surprising they have not fixed it yet.