Do you need virus and malware protection for Android devices?

[DontTreadOnMe]

Hello, DIers!

Some of you may remember me from the olde days on you-know-where.
I had quite a few of these computer help threads.

Well, I am back and looking for answers.

I recently got really fed up with my Amazon Fire kindle.  Too many ads.  WAY too many ads and their browser sucks.

So, I entered the world of Samsung tablets and so far so good.
Do I need to install an anti-virus?  How about anti-malware.  
If so, which one[s]?

I use Malwarebytes on my desktop, but I am having issues with them on the tablet.  It won't let me login to my Malwarebytes account....and customer help isn't.

Thanks, DIers 

[UltraBudgie]

It is probably not what you're looking for, but I think one of the best solutions is to add a custom DNS server to your home network, which you can do quite cheaply. That will block ads and malware without you having to install anything special on each of your machines or devices.

Here is the web site, it's open-source and free software:
https://pi-hole.net/

You just have to buy a Raspberry Pi to install it on, then configure your home network router to point to it as the DNS server. Then when things on your Wifi try to look up ads or malware, it will block them. It's a bit technical to get it up and running, but not too bad, and well worth it.


PS: This is also useful for things like Smart TVs that spy on you, it will block the sites they upload their collected data to.

[LogicalGraffiti]

This is my personal opinion so take it with a grain of salt. The biggest threats to avoid are ones that trick you into clicking a link that looks like something you trust and gets you to enter account credentials. I don’t think anti-malware programs protect against that. 

On my Windows laptop, I rely only on MS Defender because there are more viruses written for Windows than other OS’s. On my Linux systems and Android tablet, I don’t run any anti-malware software at all.  

My best advise is, trust nothing!  No emails or websites until you research who’s behind it

[Encia22]

Hi DTOM, from the title, I gather the tablet is only Android based. I've used Android since it first came out and have never used any virus, spyware or malware detecting apps.

Most viruses and spyware are meant for windows machines, so they cannot work on Android. 

As LogicalGraffiti mentioned, just avoid clicking banners and dubious alerts, which are often just traps to get more advertising crap to open up in multiple tabs of your browser.

Also, Android does a good job, out-of-the-box, to stop nefarious pop ups and will notify you of what it blocks. It will also prevent non-secure websites to be visited. Having said all that, I've managed to get some adware installed by mistake, but it was just me being inattentive and visiting websites to find Apps which are not authorised by the Google playstore and therefore vetted. Those dark corners of the internet are not mainstream and you really need to go out of your way to find them, often being torrent sites.

[BeyondKnowledge]

I use an android tablet and phone. Both are covered by a McAfee subscription that comes with my cellular plan. I can't really say if they do anything because I have never been without the McAfee package. I haven't had any problems though.

I have had some ads that say my device is infected but those were trying to get me to click a link. I haven't seen one of those in a while though.

And yes, McAfee has a version specifically for Android.

[DontTreadOnMe]

It is probably not what you're looking for, but I think one of the best solutions is to add a custom DNS server to your home network, which you can do quite cheaply. That will block ads and malware without you having to install anything special on each of your machines or devices.

Here is the web site, it's open-source and free software:
https://pi-hole.net/

You just have to buy a Raspberry Pi to install it on, then configure your home network router to point to it as the DNS server. Then when things on your Wifi try to look up ads or malware, it will block them. It's a bit technical to get it up and running, but not too bad, and well worth it.

It sounds like a good solution, but perhaps beyond my technical ability.
I'll look into it though.

[DontTreadOnMe]

As LogicalGraffiti mentioned, just avoid clicking banners and dubious alerts, which are often just traps to get more advertising crap to open up in multiple tabs of your browser.

Thanks.


That is one of the first things we learned back in the day...all those flashing ads ...before we even knew they were "ads"  Saying you had something nefarious on your computer....
IOW
Do.  Not.  Click. on what is unknown.

[SurferSoul]

I haven’t had issues malware or viruses for a long time on any of my devices. What I do use and makes browsing so much better is AdBlock. YouTube is watchable again, pop ups are gone. Sometimes there is a nag screen asking you to donate. It’s cool because you can donate whatever you like, or not pay anything and it still works. I like this approach and going to donate to them for it now I think of it. 

Personally ads and trackers are the most annoying thing about browsing these days. You should set your browser to delete cookies and history when closing it. Just remember to bookmark sites you like.

[ReturnofBroccoli]

It is probably not what you're looking for, but I think one of the best solutions is to add a custom DNS server to your home network, which you can do quite cheaply. That will block ads and malware without you having to install anything special on each of your machines or devices.

Here is the web site, it's open-source and free software:
https://pi-hole.net/

You just have to buy a Raspberry Pi to install it on, then configure your home network router to point to it as the DNS server. Then when things on your Wifi try to look up ads or malware, it will block them. It's a bit technical to get it up and running, but not too bad, and well worth it.


PS: This is also useful for things like Smart TVs that spy on you, it will block the sites they upload their collected data to.

I loved your post, however, I wanted to add that the only malware it blocks are ones added to its blacklist as known malicious traffic. It does not protect against custom malware pointing towards unknown c2c servers as far as I understand it. It is updated very consistently and is probably your best bet though.

[ReturnofBroccoli]

If you are looking specifically for an antivirus I will suggest AVG or trendmicro as they are the ONLY scanner on virustotal that has ever caught anything i made. Keep in mind it was 20 years ago and I was an amateur but I think that speaks volumes to their abilities to detect signatures that the other ones just didn't detect for some reason. Especially since the one I was using was a super old encoder. Shame on them! Avg has mobile support and is available in Google play store for mobile or android tablets. It is free. Trend micro I don't believe is free but I do love them the most. Avg will tell you you should buy its other crap but the other stuff isn't free. Only the scanner is. I think AVG plus pi-hole will be your best FREE bet.