Android Security

[CondorCluster]

Just recently got an Android smart-phone (Huawei Ascend G300), and was looking at the app store.

There are multiple apps featuring security and ant-virus capabilities, question is do I really need an anti-virus app? I don't really want to have something running in the background using up resources, that's one of the reasons I ditched Windows for Linux!

Can I connect the phone via usb, to my Linux Mint machines, then scan it with clamAV?

Thanks.

[xenopeek]

Perhaps a better place for advice on that would be an Android specific forum. Some think that Android = Linux, which is true only in the sense that Android uses the Linux kernel--it doesn't use all the other common components that make up and harden a GNU/Linux based distro such as Linux Mint. Program on Android don't use any Linux components, they run on the Dalvik virtual machine. So I think you are more susceptible to malware on Android than you think. ClamAV scams mostly for Windows based virusses, so that wouldn't be much use.

[CondorCluster]

Went and got Lookout from the app store (the free version anyway), does virus/malware scans, and also locates the phone if lost/stolen (allegedly). Doesn't seem to hog a massive amount of resoursces...