30 mobile solutions tested for malware protection and speed hit.
Independent test organization
AV-Test
has released its latest report, covering the
Andriod
platform. This major test of mobile solutions included 30 contenders, with offerings of varying complexity. As well as rating malware detection, false alarms and performance, extra points were given for including additional security components.
Products were given a rating out of a possible six points for detecting a set of over 2,500 recent
Android
malware samples, and for ‘usability’, covering impact on system speed, battery drain, generating data traffic, and false positives on clean apps.
An additional point was available for including other protections – including remote lock, wipe and locate features, browsing and messaging filters and unwanted call blockers, parental controls, backup, encryption and much more besides.
The top performer, with an impeccable 13 out of 13, was
Bitdefender
‘s
Mobile Security
.
The bulk of the remaining products followed close behind, with
AhnLab
,
Avast
,
Comodo
,
ESET
,
F-Secure
,
Kaspersky
,
Kingsoft
,
McAfee
,
Microworld
,
NQ Mobile
,
Qihoo
and
Symantec
all scoring a very decent 12.5 points,
Dr Web
and
Trend Micro
doing very well with 12 points, and
Antiy
,
Armor for Android
,
Lookout
,
Quick Heal
and
Sophos
also doing pretty well on 11.5 points.
Tencent
did reasonably well with 11 points, while
G Data
,
Ikarus
,
Juniper
,
TrustGo
and
Webroot
did OK with 10 points each.
ThreatTrack Security
managed nine points – just clearing the eight point cut-off point for certification, but identifying less than 90% of the malware set.
Lagging well behind were a few further products, all of which were denied certification. These included products from
SPAMfighter
– which wasn’t too far off the mark with seven points, but which was given a score of zero for detection, having picked up only 76% of the samples.
SUVSoft
was given six points, with reasonable detection, but was hit by a large number of false alarms. Bringing up the rear was
AegisLab
, which fared poorly on all counts.
It may be worth noting that under
AV-Test
‘s official methodology (PDF
here
), it appears to (theoretically) be possible for a product to alert on
all
apps but still reach certification standard, as long as it doesn’t slow the phone down too much and has at least a few extra features.
Android
malware continues to proliferate, rapidly catching up with
Windows
malware in terms of sophistication, as researchers at
Kaspersky Lab
recently discovered
. Dodgy apps are spreading through rogue app stores as well as sneaking onto legitimate stores, including spoofed versions of
very popular
Android
games
, so users of the platform are advised to ensure they run a quality security solution.
However, despite the growth in malware, the biggest risk most mobile users face is losing their device, as
F-Secure
‘s Mikko Hypponen recently
pointed out
. This makes the additional features, such as remote lock/wipe tools and phone locating systems, a vital part of the smartphone user’s security armoury.
The test results can be found in full on the
AV-Test
website,
here
.
Posted on 18 June 2013 by
John Hawes
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