Your Phone May Not Need Antivirus Software
Business Technology | July 25, 2012
Antivirus software has taken a beating lately in the news, mostly because it has struggled to find and contain a few of the bigger malware attacks in recent months.
Antivirus Not Necessary on Smartphones?
Then there is the acknowledgement that antivirus software isn’t much use to consumers who do most of their computing on smartphones. This is important, as many consumers today read email messages, surf the Web and obtain social media through their smartphones. If antivirus software isn’t actually helping these folks, then the antivirus industry is losing out on a load of potential customers.
Smartphones vs. PCs
First, modern smartphones operate in a different way than traditional PCs and laptops. On a smartphone, each app receives its own work environment and is not able to access the data found in other apps. This is certainly a nice security upgrade from the world of PCs and laptops. Malware that is just installed onto a smartphone will be able to do little harm. So there is the first strike against traditional antivirus software: there’s not as much need for it on a smartphone.
Secondly, due to the way smartphones work, antivirus software can’t do much to combat any malware smartphone users pick up. That’s because antivirus software can’t scan multiple apps to search for trouble.
Smartphone Antivirus Programs
Although there are many reasons why current antivirus software is not very effective for smartphones, it doesn’t stop companies from offering it. One example of this is VirusBarrier. This program can be bought in Apple’s App Store. The funny thing about this is that it can’t actually scan anything on a smartphone. Instead users must send email attachments to VirusBarrier from inside their mail program for it to function. So, you can see, that there is very little reason for consumers to spend their money on antivirus software for their smartphones. Companies must come out with more complex software that can scan all of the smartphone systems for antivirus software to be relevant.
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Antivirus software has taken a beating lately in the news, mostly because it has struggled to find and contain a few of the bigger malware attacks in recent months.
Antivirus Not Necessary on Smartphones?
Then there is the acknowledgement that antivirus software isn’t much use to consumers who do most of their computing on smartphones. This is important, as many consumers today read email messages, surf the Web and obtain social media through their smartphones. If antivirus software isn’t actually helping these folks, then the antivirus industry is losing out on a load of potential customers.
Smartphones vs. PCs
First, modern smartphones operate in a different way than traditional PCs and laptops. On a smartphone, each app receives its own work environment and is not able to access the data found in other apps. This is certainly a nice security upgrade from the world of PCs and laptops. Malware that is just installed onto a smartphone will be able to do little harm. So there is the first strike against traditional antivirus software: there’s not as much need for it on a smartphone.
Secondly, due to the way smartphones work, antivirus software can’t do much to combat any malware smartphone users pick up. That’s because antivirus software can’t scan multiple apps to search for trouble.
Smartphone Antivirus Programs
Although there are many reasons why current antivirus software is not very effective for smartphones, it doesn’t stop companies from offering it. One example of this is VirusBarrier. This program can be bought in Apple’s App Store. The funny thing about this is that it can’t actually scan anything on a smartphone. Instead users must send email attachments to VirusBarrier from inside their mail program for it to function. So, you can see, that there is very little reason for consumers to spend their money on antivirus software for their smartphones. Companies must come out with more complex software that can scan all of the smartphone systems for antivirus software to be relevant.
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