Webroot Gets a Thumbs Up for Mobile

  • 28 August 2013
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There is a story out today from computerworld that calls out Webroot's recent success in an AV-Comparatives test.  Along with 15 other apps that got a thumbs up, Webroot SecureAnywhere Mobile was praised because it "provides control of theft-protection features using both text messages and a web interface. It also has inspectors that find power-hungry apps."
 
 


AV-C Labs
 
The story gets interesting when it turns to an analysis of the current threat landscape.  The overview provided by the article's author suggests that if you live in the Western world, you are at a "low risk" of having your mobile device get infected with malware.  By comparison to the Eastern world, the author would be correct.  It's true that there is a greater propensity in countries like China to use unofficial app stores, which are more likely to house malware.  However, while "lower risk by comparison" would be a correct assessment, "low risk," in general, probably isn't the best choice of words.  Webroot's threat researchers have shown that about 10% of all apps hosted on Google Play are, in fact, malicious or are at least potentially unwanted apps (PUA).  10% sounds low though, right?  Well, not really.  Consider that the average user has about 80 apps installed.  One way of looking at the 10% number is to conclude that probably 8 of them are malware or PUA.  Another way to look at it is that for every 10 apps you download, one of them, statistically speaking, is going to be malware or PUA.  That doesn't seem like such a low risk when you put it in context.  What do you think?
 
You can get the free version of Webroot SecureAnywhere Mobile from the Google Play store, here.
The paid version, which contains more features, is available here.
We also provide a free web browser, Webroot SecureWeb, which is available here.

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