Tag Archives: Avast
GoMo’s protect your smartphone advice for Xmas
Rating: Inspired by Stonesoft’s Top ten tips
.We all know that significant numbers of handsets – especially smartphones, will be given as Xmas presents this year. However, consumers don’t naturally associate mobile phones with threats from hackers, viruses and malware. As Ash Patel, regional director with Stonesoft, says, “To a consumer, cybercrime may seem a distant threat that is mostly related to espionage between nation-states or hacking against big enterprises.” However, mobile devices are very easy to steal as we’ve reported before but they can contain seriously damaging personal data – such as credit card information and even login details for social networks. So Stonesoft has put together its own Top Ten tips on mobile security for Xmas time. Sound advice but not always entirely practical. Continue reading
Posted in App stores, Featured, mobile cloud, mobile security
Tagged Ash Patel, Avast, AVG, getjar, opera, Stonesoft
Leave a comment
Forget BYOD – BYOA is going to give your IT Dept kittens
Rating: Bring Your Own App is the new black
As if Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) wasn’t bad enough, the latest industry trend – Bring Your Own App or BYOA, is going to give the Network Nasties [IT managers] kittens. Rather than utilising approved application which are supplied and managed by the IT department, employees are starting to download and utilise their own favourite apps for business purposes. The implications of such practices are serious for some industry sectors (such as financial institutions) which could find sensitive data floating around on employees’ iPads, BlackBerries and Android smartphones. Luckily, there is a way out of BYOA melt-down. Secure the data and the apps can look after themselves. Continue reading
Posted in BYOD, BlackBerry, RIM, mobile news
Tagged ActiveSync, Avast, BlackBerry, BYOA, BYOD, Dropbox, good technology, Mobile Fusion, RIM
Leave a comment
AVAST Software shows how to launch a successful Android app
Rating: 10m downloads and highest ranking in class
It’s nice to see one of GoMobile News‘ favourite apps doing so well. AVAST Software has just informed us that its avast! Free Mobile Security app for Android passed an important milestone -10 million installations, by August 1st 2012. The company’s goal is to reach 20 million installations by Q1 2013. AVAST claims that avast! Free Mobile Security is the highest ranked security solution in the Google Play store (formerly Android Market) with 4.7 out of 5 stars. Continue reading
Posted in App stores, Mobile applications, android, mobile security
Tagged anti-theft, anti-virus, Avast, network meter, Ondrej Vlcek, SiteCorrect
Leave a comment
McAfee says Android malware is getting more sophisticated
Rating: Targets mobile banking users in particular
McAfee is warning that Android malware which attempts to defraud smartphone owners by obtaining their mTANs (Mobile Transaction Numbers) is getting more sophisticated. The security specialist is claiming that it may be possible to obtain the necessary information to defeat the two-factor authentication security scheme which is commonly used by High Street banks. GoMobile News has already covered the banking ‘token generator ‘ scam which seems to have afflicted Spanish banks here. However, McAfee now says that it has now found Android malware that not only has the man-in-the-middle (MIM) functionality but can also be controlled remotely. This means it can grab the initial password from a mobile device without infecting the user’s PC. To avoid being caught out, McAfee has published a number of handy tips of Android owners. Continue reading
Posted in android, mobile security
Tagged android, Android/FakeToken.A, Avast, banking, Man In The Middle, McAfee, mTANs, token
1 Comment
An Android/iOS app that spies on employees’ smartphones
Rating: Copy9 crosses line between data protection and snooping
When we stumbled across Copy9‘s range of mobile apps, we really weren’t sure whether they were genuine or malware. The company itself describes the product as ‘spyware’ and cites child protection; monitoring cheating spouses or errant employees as reasons to install its apps. The catch is that you have to provide the Copy9 app will exactly the kind of capabilities you would for a nasty piece of malware. So we asked our old buddies at mobile security software specialist, avast! Software, their opinion. This is what Alena Varkockova, Android analyst with the AVAST Virus Lab, said. “This app is an example of the thin line between malicious and PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program).” So GoMobile News bit the bullet and installed Copy9 on an old Android handset lent to us by ZTE. The app does what it claims to do. It spies on the handset for you. For free. Continue reading
Posted in Mobile applications, ZTE, android, iOS, mobile location, mobile security
Tagged Alena Varkockova, Avast, BOYD, Copy9, Jonathan Penn, malicious app, Potentially Unwanted Program, PUP
7 Comments
avast! free mobile security gets top AV-test ranking for Android malware
Press release
March 9th 2012. avast! Free Mobile Security got a top malware detection ranking in the new study from AV-Test, the independent testing organisation. “avast! Free Mobile Security is available for free, easy to use and has many features to protect your device. With its very good detection rate it is one of the best security products for your Android device,” stated Andreas Marx, CEO of AV-Test, in the report. Continue reading
avast! Free Mobile Security tops Norton in PC Welt
avast! Free Mobile Security tops Norton in PC Welt’s comparative review of android security apps.
Press release
February 10th 2012. PC Welt, a leading German IT magazine, compared functionality in the new avast! Free Mobile Security with that in the free and paid-for versions of Norton Mobile Security.”The free avast! product is an exceptional alternative, especially when you consider the Anti-Theft features,” wrote reviewer Matthias Schwindt. “Because theft is the greatest danger for smartphone users.” Continue reading
Android app provides security of Wi-fi links
Rating: Apparently it sees off Cain & Abel, FaceNiff, DroidSheep, and WifiKill
We’ve run plenty of stories about mobile phone security, but we hadn’t noticed that there might be a gap in protection. Yup, attacks over Wi-fi. GoMo News has discovered that there seem to be plenty of these type of attacks doing the rounds. Heinrich Gurke informs us that they mostly come under the category of ‘Man In The Middle (MITM)’ attacks and guess what? He’s built an app that protects Android users from these kinds of threats – it’s called Wifi Protector. Continue reading
Posted in Mobile applications, android, mobile security
Tagged Avast, Cain & Abel, DroidSheep, FaceNiff, Heinrich Gurke, Man In The Middle, MITM. ARP, Wi-Fi, Wifi Protector, WifiKill
Leave a comment
A way to avoid O2′s accidental security breach
Rating: Create your own proxy server
Readers may have seen Press reports that between January 10th and 14.00 on January 25th [2012], those using web browsers on the UK’s O2 network may have accidentally exposed their mobile phone number to third party web site. Don’t worry because O2 has very definitely fixed the problem and has posted a FAQ about the incident here. GoMo News was immediately curious to know – if those O2 customers had been running security software would it have protected them? The short answer is No. But, and it’s a big but, it would have been possible to swerve this disclosure had you been routinely routing all of the traffic from your smartphone through a secure proxy server. Continue reading
Posted in mobile security, o2
Tagged APN, Avast, bango, Eckoh, Lewis Peckover, mobile security, o2, proxy server, QRpedia, Terence Eden
2 Comments
Android security app from Avast goes gold in just 16 days
Rating: As recommended by GoMo News
A security app for Android mobile phones which GoMo News has been unashamedly recommending – avast! Free Mobile Security – has been installed by over one million smartphone users in just 16 days. As Ondrej Vlcek, Avast Software‘s CTO put it, “It required Lookout a full six months to reach the one-million level for their mobile security product.” But Avast managed it in virtually a fortnight. It might have been quicker if Avast had formally informed us the full – rather than beta – version had finally been released. Continue reading
Posted in Mobile applications, android, mobile security
Tagged Avast, Brazilian, free, French, mobile security, Ondrej Vlcek, US English
1 Comment
Fully-featured Android security app comes out of beta
Rating: At a pricepoint you’ll like – it’s free
The app’s author has kept pretty quiet about it but the Android security app which we have been raving about – avast! Free Mobile Security – has finally come out of beta. You can get it from the Android Market here. GoMo News is particularly amused by this comment from Ondrej Vlcek, who is CTO with Avast Software. “We’ve developed our [app] at a price everyone can afford.” Precisely – it’s free and there’s nothing missing from this app. Actually, it’s the other way around. There are facilities buried away in this software which you wouldn’t believe. This is largely due to its recent acquisition of the Theft Aware app developed by IT Agents which has been merged with regular anti-virus software. Continue reading
Posted in Mobile applications, android, mobile security
Tagged android, anti-theft, anti-virus, Avast, free, Ondrej Vlcek
1 Comment
Maybe PhonepayPlus has got something to hide
Rating: Watchdog still hasn’t learnt how to bite, though
Usually when you put out a Press release on 22nd December [2011] at 5.45 pm which says it has an “embargo 00.01 am 27 December 2011″, then the issuer is definitely trying to bury some news. (See here). PhonepayPlus did this very thing but try as hard as we could, we couldn’t see anything in the information which needed to be hidden. But – and this is a big but – the regulator is still displaying a remarkable lack of courage in trying to control the industry is has been put in charge of. Basically that’s the Premium Rate SMS sector. Now, it’s very laudable that PhonepayPlus has sponsored the PhoneBrain social enterprise competition challenges for 11 – 19 year olds. The finalists will present their ideas in January to a panel of industry experts at ITV’s London headquarters. ITV, eh? Isn’t that the TV company which perpetrated some of the worse cases of premium rate fraud (here). Yup, it is. Who’s the compere? Gary Glitter? Continue reading
Posted in Premium rate text, mobile security
Tagged Avast, Bullguard, F-Secure, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microsoft, Paul Whiteing, PhonepayPlus’, Sophos, Symantec, Trend
1 Comment
More details emerge on Avast!’s Android offering
Rating: Remote control via internet is buried inside beta app
GoMo News recently paid a visit to Avast! Software in their headquarters which are in Prague (Czech Republic). We knew the company was getting into Android in a big way. Believe it or not Avast!’s first app for Android phones still hasn’t launched officially. But you can get the beta version of Avast! Mobile Security from the Android Market today and we’d thoroughly recommend it. Now [December 22nd 2011], the company has come clean over its new Austrian arm which will be headed up by Reinhard Holzner. He’s the founder of ITAgents – a software company which Avast! recently acquired. GoMo News was accidentally chatting with Reinhard over beers in Prague and he hinted at some exciting new features which should eventually become available via the Mobile Security offering. Continue reading
Posted in Mobile applications, android
Tagged Austria, Avast, beta, ITagents, mobile security, Reinhard Holzner, Vince Steckler
1 Comment
