Recent increase in rate of appearance Android malware apps - although the report is disputed.

Looks like you can avoid the vast majority of them by being sensible about what you download but, as the bloke in Hill Street Blues used to say, 'let's be careful out there'.

Jon

As Charlie Miller proved, the same Applies for iOS... If Apple's vetting process doesn't notice malware, how much is on iOS?

I always use the same rules for all platforms (Windows, OS X, iOS, Android and Linux), only download from a name you know, always download directly from the source, if possible (App Stores make that next to impossible, at least Android lets you side load from a reputable source).

You've rather missed the point I was trying to make.


I specifically didn't mention iOS as a comparison because I didn't think that was really the issue, the point was as a polite reminder that the stuff is out there, because it's easy to fall into bad habits. iOS actually has nothing to do with this.


John Gruber - usually not a man to defend Android in any way - makes a similar point; in his words



However even the most careful person can be careless once in a while, so a gentle reminder does no harm. Unless someone wants to turn into yet another iOS vs Android scuffle.

Jon

I run "Lookout" which scans apps before they're installed. Obviously it can only scan for known factors, but that along with checking the permissions (why would a game require access to my contacts or text messages for example) adds a certain amount of confidence.

As for "only download from trusted sources" - a fact that applies equally to every platform - it's not always a guarantee. However, it's always a better idea than installing something you got off your favourite file sharing network.

Pretty sure my boss had a virus on his phone recently. It came on a knock-off micro SD card from Amazon market place. It instantly crashed Windows every time he plugged the phone in, and managed to destroy Outlook. Ended up replacing the hard drive in the PC and doing a clean install.

Ouch.

On the plus side, that means most of the office is now finally running Windows 7

Dodgy Adverts are also a big problem, here in Germany. Do you get the same thing in the UK?

Ads, like "see naked girls", "you've won", "naked scanner" etc. access your SIMs MSISDN and uses that for WAP Billing ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAP_billing ), which then adds a few quid to your mobile bill, or more normally, it sets up a rolling '"contract" with the advertiser to take a couple of quid a month.

The providers here have started introducing online forms on their websites to allow users to block specific companies from using WAP billing on your phone, T-Mobile and Vodafone allow you to set up a blanket ban, O2 are following, but Base, Simyo, Congstar and others currently only allow you to block the bad guys one-by-one.

What is worrying is that these adverts can be slipped into the standard advertising stream on mobile phones.