Most Android Antivirus Apps Are Garbage
is already fraught. You’re basically inviting all-seeing, all-knowing software onto your device, trusting that it’ll keep the bad guys out and not abuse its own access in the process. On Android, that problem is compounded by dozens of apps that aren’t just ineffective—they’re outright phony.
That’s the finding of newly published research from AV-Comparatives, a European company that, as its name suggests, tests antivirus products. In a survey of 250 antivirus apps found in the Google Play Store, only 80 demonstrated basic competence at their jobs by detecting 30 percent or more of the 2,000 malicious apps AV-Comparatives threw at them. The remainder either failed to meet that benchmark, frequently mistook benign apps for malware, or have been pulled from the Play Store altogether. In other words, they stunk.
“In the past we and others found malicious apps, non-working apps, so it is not really a surprise to find some bogus AV apps as well,” says Peter Stelzhammer, COO of AV-Comparatives. “In the times of rogue AV software, you have to be aware of everything.”
Failure comes in many different colors, of course. Some antivirus apps AV-Comparatives tested actually did a decent job of blocking malicious apps, but introduced potential risks of their own. Several dozen products—all of which share a suspiciously similar user interface—relied on a “whitelist” approach, meaning that only specifically named apps were permitted to run on the device. Think of it as a bouncer in a club with a very strict guest list; anyone not on it has to go, whether they’re seedy or not.
The immediate ramification of that approach should be obvious: An antivirus that reli
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