They are supposed to detect and block any threats that we might run into. But there’s a huge problem with many antivirus programs that you probably aren’t aware of. A recent study shows that most of them don’t work. In fact, some might even cause harm to your device.
Is your antivirus program junk?
A recent study conducted by AV-Comparatives revealed that most antivirus apps found in the Google Play Store are worthless. So if you or someone you know use Android gadgets, you’ll want to pay attention here. Researchers tested 250 antivirus Android apps and found that less than 10% were able to defend against all 2,000 malicious apps used for the test. Only 80 of the 250 were able to detect over 30% of malicious apps, and had zero false alarms. What’s scary is, more than two-thirds of the tested apps failed to reach a block rate of 30%. They found antimalware apps from 138 vendors that detected less than 30% of the malware samples used, or had a relatively high false alarm rate on popular clean files from the Google Play Store. Here are some that failed:
AndroHelm SecurityANTI VIRUS SecurityAppzilaBaboon AntivirusBest Battery AppsCaltonfuny Antivirus PhoneCheetah MobileFree Apps DriveGalaxy TEAMHello SecurityFast n CleanMSolutionsPro Tool AppsSecure CloudSoft WarTokyo TokyoVainfotechWingle Apps
That’s just a partial list. Click here to see it in its entirety. Researchers said many of the antivirus apps are bogus. They were created just to display ads to make money. They said, “The main purpose of these apps seems to be generating easy revenue for their developers – rather than actually protecting their users.” That’s why it’s important to stick with well-known developers that you can trust. Your security depends upon it.
