Which virusscanner can you recommand for Iode?

General
1

Hi there,

Is there a virusscanner (with antimalware, firewall etc.) you can recommand?
I have a this point in mind Gdata.

Could Kaspersky be possible?

Is there a virusscanner which doesn’t work at all?

Thanks in advance.

2

Virusscanner is not necessary. Most of them are pure snakeoil.

Just use the iodè tracker control.

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3

Thank you FairphoneHulk for your answer.
I understand what you mean refering to the tracker.

When checking the site of Iode I found:
"IodéOS analyses in real-time data requests from your apps and allows you to :

  • see the identity of all recipients and the quantity of data they wish to collect
  • block if you want unwanted recipients** (advertisements, malwares, spams, statistics & trackers)"

But what to do when a virus or other malware comes in together with an attachment in your e-mail for example?
I think that the tracker in that case isn’t sufficient.

4

What Android viruses do you know? :wink:

5

I don’t know if you are able to read German (otherwise deepl.com should help), but there is a “famous” German security blogger, Mike Kuketz, who wrote about virus scanners, especially for mobile platforms this November.
For Android the conclusion was that most AV scanners contain a huge amount of trackers (except Hypatia from f-droid) and are essentially unnecessary because most of the time the user installs the malware hem/herself. For the other ways malware might infect your phone the AV scanner can’t help anyway due to the sandboxing in Android which makes it impossible for the scanner to analyze the behavior of the other apps.

You might have a look at the blog entry if you like:
https://www.kuketz-blog.de/truegerische-sicherheit-virenscanner-apps-sind-schlichtweg-ueberfluessig/

I am no expert in security, so I can’t really decide whether he is right or wrong, but what he writes sounds convincing.

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6

@ FairphoneHulk; I’m happy that I don’t know any android virus. And I want to keep it that way.
Probably I’m one of the guys who do believe that virusscanners work.

@juri.gagarin.ii; I will have a look. It sounds rather technical. As far as I know you can be infected just by visiting a website. The virusscanner I had blocked a website from entering when it was known as malicious. The idea that you install malware by yourself is in my opinion in two ways. Consciously and unconsciously. The last one is the idea of entering a website you don’t know is infected.

7

The only thing I can think of right now is that by tracking which site you visit, the virusscanners are able to see where you get infected and add the site to the blacklist of sites which will be blocked in the future.
To prevent that it happens to other users.

8

If you want absolutely use one then have a look at this FOSS scanner:

https://f-droid.org/packages/us.spotco.malwarescanner/

The only one without trackers

9

Thank you for the article and link to translate it.
The article was really an eye opener.

I had no idea that there is a difference between a laptop/computer and a smartphone/ipad in the way they are designed in relation to security and the working of virusscanners. The sandbox.
It is exactly as you write.

I quote the site “Those who get their apps exclusively from established app stores such as the Google Play Store, F-Droid or Apple’s App Store do not need to install an additional virus scanner. In reality, the dangers lie elsewhere: phishing, mobile phone rip-offs/subscription traps, fake sweepstakes, device loss, etc. represent immediate threats from which a healthy dose of scepticism/common sense in particular can protect.”

In case you use untrusted sources for your apps and do trust the virusscanner companies (which gather much more (personal) information from you than what they need to do their job) it can help.

10

Thanks Hulk. Very helpfull. :grinning:
After the article I now understand your “snakeoil”.

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