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Do you need to download an anti-virus for Android?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024
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Not really. Especially you stick to trusted app stores. It's only really needed if you frequently sideload apps, and even then only if you feel it's necessary.
That being said, Hypatia is a good one I like to use from time to time. It's FOSS too. You can find it on F-Droid if you use the DivestOS official repo.
No amount of antivirus or alternative OSs will save you from unpatched hardware vulnerabilities though. Visiting a malicious web page or downloading a temporarily hostage app from your favorite app store can be enough to allow the bad guys into your device.
As long as you have a currently supported device and keep it up to date, you shouldn't ever need antivirus.
Well there's not just prevention. Antivirus software can detect & remove. Also, by this logic, wouldn't that mean there's no point for desktop antiviruses? Seems incorrect to me.
And yet sometimes you do need one.
In any case, I never said having one is foolproof. I merely said downloading random apps willy-nilly can increase the risk, sometimes not much at all and other times greatly. It depends entirely on your threat model.
Regarding desktop antivirus, it's often the case where it is not necessary to have. Windows has Windows Defender built-in, and other operating systems have other means to mitigate any type of viruses. There are actually reports of antivirus causing attacks because their hooks are so deep in the operating system.
Even trusted apps and app stores are prone to being malicious. The upstream packages that they use can have a malicious developer or insecure package, and it gets incorporated in the app, then distributed. Thats why it's important to use devices that get hardware/firmware updates to help protect against this. If a rootkit is installed, there is no way to ever get rid of it on your system.
Windows Defender is antivirus application, though, so how is it evidence that antivirus applications are pointless? Also, Defender wasn't always as good as it is. That's only a relatively recent thing.
Also, there are viruses/malware other than rootkits.