I’m not slacking, I’ve just been busy at Betanews trying to adhere to the prime directives.
You know…serving the public trust, protecting the innocent, and upholding the law…
That’s how I do.
But I’m gonna do better and spread my work out among a couple of other blogs soon. For now, here’s a look at the two different builds of AVG’s Android antivirus software: phone and tablet.
AVG did a pretty good smartphone survey in February and they shared the results with me at CTIA when I shot this quick video. It was kind of ridiculous, actually. Like many security surveys, it was sort of geared to show how ignorant most people are.
Of nearly 30,000 smartphone users that participated in the survey, 25% DIDN’T EVEN KNOW WHAT OS THEY WERE USING!
That was more than any other single OS named. iOS had 24%, RIM BBOS had 19%, Windows Mobile had 12% and Android had only 9%.
51% said they had, at some point, accidentally signed up for some product or service without knowing it cost money.
59% said they were unsure if they had ever shared their location via photo metadata.
53% said they were unsure if their “confidential payment information” was being shared through third party apps.
AVG is free/freemium. While I’m not personally convinced of the utility of smartphone security apps against good old fashioned conscientious usage, you can’t really argue with their intentions and their price point.
Stay Tuned, I’ll be posting a review of Mikrosonic’s MPC for Android that goes by the name SPC.
I’m skeptical about mobile security, and I’ll probably remain so until I get heinously infected with some malware that requires an OS reinstall…which, as far as I know, is really fucking annoying on a phone.
But ultimately, a compromised phone could be way more than just an annoyance. Someone could steal all your info, way beyond the stuff that the bank and phone company can protect. Think about that whole thread of sexts with that married person you had that little “thing” with, or all your calendar data listing when your kid is at a baby sitter…it’s fodder for humiliation or even worse, extortion. Or, your phone could be a part of a mobile botnet used to bring down Twitter for the forty millionth time this year. THAT WOULD BE TRAGIC!
But enough terror husbandry*, we’ve got phone stuff to talk about.
This week, DroidSecurity unveiled their $4.99 Internet Security Suite…a product it’s billing as “the first full-featured consumer anti-malware and physical security app for Google’s Android operating system.”
I don't know why the Sheriff would have a bandit mask on.
It comes with several components: VirusFree and VirusFree Pro for cleaning up malware, viruses and junk SMS, CheckMate, your average profile-based malware database, and FindR, a tool for tracking lost or stolen phones with the ability to run a remote memory wipe.
For some reason, all these components are listed separately on the DroidSecurity site, and FindR is listed as costing $20….I looked at that and was like “yeah..sure,” until I checked further and the whole thing is, in fact only $4.99. It’s a reasonable price if you’re genuinely afraid of having your phone compromised or if you want to have a remote killswitch for your device in case its stolen and your SD card happens to have several dozen naked pictures of yourself.
I saved my $4.99, though….well…not true. I saved $2.00 of it because I actually bought the Electrum Drum machine instead. That’s just me though, I’ll let you know how that goes later.
*NOTE: I intentionally avoid the term “FUD,” as I loathe it. As you read this blog, you’ll become acquainted with the many, many terms that I hate. Usually, they’re cliches, abbreviations, and convenient expressions that replace linguistic invention. Hence, my advocacy of the neologism “Sext.”)
