good antivirus with phone locator?

[Guest t.A.T.u]

Hello everyone,

I wonder if any of you know a good antivirus that also has phone locator that shows where the phone is in google maps when it gets stolen? I have tryed many antivirus such as dr.web or avast or antivirus pro but none of them has phone locator.

[Guest targetbsp]

IMO, cerberus is by miles the best phone security app. It can also be installed via Rom Manager so if someone nicks the phone and wipes data - it's still present.

Here's a list of its features I posted on another phone site:

Start/stop tracking (show the phone on google maps, turns on gps if it's off)

get device info (operator, subscriber number, sim serial)

lock/unlock phone (remotely set pin needed to unlock lock)

start alarm with a message (sound alarm (even if phone is silent) and write message to screen)

display message (as above but without alarm. optional TTS)

get call log

get text messages

call phone (requests the phone calls a number. not sure why!)

record audio (basically turns the phone into a remote microphone)

take picture (using the camera, flash optional, emails the pic to you)

take screenshot (emails to you)

start/stop emergency mode (causes the phone to regularly alert you as to its location)

hide/show app in app drawer

wipe device (data partition - basically factory reset)

wipe sd card

You can do pretty much all of those via sms if the phone has no data connection plus you can enable the data/wifi connection via sms.

Automated features are:

Take a photo if a wrong unlock code is entered or the user stops an alarm you sent or closes a message you sent. This mostly needs a front facing camera!

Automatically text up to 3 numbers and email you if the sim card is swapped with the new sim card details (so you can regain control of it using sms if data is off) and location in google streetview.

One feature it doesn't have though is virus killing. The problem is, we have no test data unlike the desktop killers so there's absolutely no-way to judge how well one actually works. All you can really go off is the UI and you could just be slowing your phone down by having a worthless app installed for all you know. Almost all of them just look for a list of known infected apps rather than actually scanning for virus signatures as far as I know. I tested loads of them and Dr Web seemed to be the only one that actually spent enough time to suggest it was actually genuinely scanning anything

See here for a second opinion on how much Droid virus killers suck: http://androidsu.com/2011/06/a-word-about-superuser-and-security/

[Guest targetbsp]

For what it's worth, here's my year old roundup of virus killer. I don't use one myself. Oh and based on the below, it appears Lookout is the answer to your original question for an all in one app.

Recommended:

Bluepoint - the only one I saw scan the system partition during its on demand scan so likely to be the best for root and custom rom users. On demand also scans the sd card too. Fast scanning using online definitions.

NQ - Fast scanning of apps and SD card. Would be my choice for stock phones.

Creative Apps Antivirus - Very lightweight and fast app only scanner

OK:

Appscan - app only scanner

Lookout - app only scanner. Seemed forced to enable the lost phone tracker? Fine if you want it - annoying if you only want a virus killer

Mixed Opinion:

Dr Web - this is probably the safest option. It spent a long time looking at every file inside each apk (which are zip files). The downside of this is that it was slow. I mean I couldn't be bothered to let it finish slow! One for the paranoid atm - might turn out to be the best when we have virus catching stats for them!

Not recommended:

Risk Detector - All this wanted todo was delete my superuser app so I didn't test it further!

AVG - said it picked up a threat (which no other killer had) and wanted to remove it but wouldn't tell me what it was. To all intents and purposes it wanted to delete one of my apps, without telling me which one, as the result of what was probably a false positive. Or perhaps it wanted rid of superuser as above.

Edited February 6, 2012 by targetbsp

[Guest t.A.T.u]

well i can have any kind of antiirus actaully but i havent seen any of them having phone locator or something. im downloading cerberus and ill see how that one works. I hope that is what i have been waiting for.

Thank you!

[Guest t.A.T.u]

i cant even use it, it askes me to buy it!

Edited February 6, 2012 by t.A.T.u

[Guest targetbsp]

i cant even use it, it askes me to buy it!

You can use it for free for a week as a trial but yes after that there is a one off charge of 3 euro's for lifetime use if you want to keep using it. It's far more secure than the free ones - and it's a lot cheaper than lookout which costs $3 a MONTH!

Edited February 6, 2012 by targetbsp

[Guest ColdEmbrace]

Avasts theft aware function has so many controls for when your phone is lost/stolen. Maybe what you desire is in there somewhere

[Guest targetbsp]

Nice! It has the 3 main features you need that no free app had when I bought Cerberus. Some apps had some of these features but none had all.

Sim card change notifier - because the first thing a thief will do is swap out the sim

Root installer - because the second thing they'll do is a factory reset

SMS control - for when the phones data is off (needs the sim card change notifier to be useful!)

And ofc, Avast is a virus killer. So yeah, go for this one I guess. :D

Review of it here: http://www.androidpo...ty-for-android/

they also point out that a Droid virus killer is of little use. ;) But they rate the security features. It does seem to do everything cerberus does - only lacking the web based control for the time being.

Edited February 6, 2012 by targetbsp

[Guest targetbsp]

Incidentally, from the very site I linked the Avast review from, I apparently wasn't alone in previously thinking Cerberus was the best and best value security app: http://www.androidpo...ur-device-safe/

:D

In fact, it's even better than that grid suggests because it can enable gps for root users (and we all are :D ) and the latest version can enable wifi. The uninstall protection is rendered irrelevant by the root support. And it does have email reporting - you switch it into emergency mode. So all it lacks from that grid is being free. :D

Edited February 6, 2012 by targetbsp

[Guest t.A.T.u]

hmm well as ive seen and heard about the cerbrous it is better then other phone locator apps, i migh wanna buy it but ill see if anybody else has response :)

[Guest Davidoff59]

From personal experience in actually recovering a lost phone which was then picked up by a passer by, android lost is the app to have. It does all if not more than all the above for free. Accurate to 4 meters for tracking.

www.androidlost.com

Seriously amazing app. When I thanked the developer and told him the story, I asked how could I donate to thank him for his app, and he said he was that happy to hear a successful recovery, that was enough payment.

You should not need an antivirus. If you download from dodgy sites, that's one thing. Lbe privacy app can remove any unneeded privilages from apps. this is also free.

I tried plan b app which is also a recovery app. consistent accuracy of 2.5 km radius so was of no use of any sort.

Edited February 6, 2012 by Davidoff59

[Guest targetbsp]

Android Lost though doesn't (or didn't used to) have root installation so whilst good against loss would be less useful against theft.

The accuracy of them should be down to how good a gps signal your phone can get at the time more than anything.

Edited February 6, 2012 by targetbsp

[Guest Davidoff59]

within 5 minutes of pushing both apps, one showed 2.5km, the other showed an actual pub where the phone was.

android lost has administrator rights so while not sure what it exactly is, it seems to work fine. you can also hide the app remotely. If the sim is changed, it allows you to get the number or something so that you can still control the phone.

It worked for me so I recommended it. I am almost certain I would not have got the phone back if I had not installed it.

[Guest targetbsp]

Yeah but any thief who has a clue will simply hit factory reset and bam the app is gone and you're also then not pushing anything to your phone because it's not logged in as you anymore.

The nice thing about Cerberus is that it's actually installable from Rom Manager into your rom and you'd need some pretty decent Android skills to get it out from there. And the above mentioned Avast can also install itself into the Rom. So I'd have to suggest one of those two for anti-theft protection.

Edited February 6, 2012 by targetbsp

[Guest Davidoff59]

won't the passcode prevent a thief from getting to the factory reset? I pushed a message that launched on every bootup saying the phone was stolen and gave my number.

Most thieves are oppertunistic and will sell the phone on quickly. It would take some research to figure out what to do to clear the phones security features and I don't feel that most people would be bothered.

Although saying that, there has been 2 posts on here asking how to bypass the passcodes. Both only wrote one post and never responded after I left messages posting concerns of how they had forgotten both the gmail log in details as well as the swipe unlock pattern.

[Guest targetbsp]

A good point! Though for convenience, I don't know a single person that uses any kind of unlock security. But yes, if you do use such a thing then I guess you'd be reasonably secure with any tracking app. Anyone that can get around that is pretty much not going to be stopped by anything really.

But yeah, if you don't use such security then I'd strongly recommend using an app that can survive a factory reset because that's a standard procedure on all droid phones and therefore requires no skill.

[Guest targetbsp]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57325078-83/free-android-antivirus-apps-fail-to-cut-it/

The best, and I use that term loosely, free AV they tested only managed to find about 32% of malware! That level of protection ain't worth wasting the ram for!

[Guest Shahmatt]

For phone locator, I'm right now using seekdroid (the free version) and it has some neat features really.

Basically you can remotely activate GPS and locate your phone, lock, wipe, and many other things, all from the seekdroid website. I had loads of fun testing it out. Do try!

[Guest t.A.T.u]

I have now used both Cerberus and Androidlost on my phone, actually Cerberrus has more features than Androidlost but the GPS phone locator on cerberus is shitty, it doesnt show the the exakt place where the phone is.

The best one for me now is just avast! Mobile Security, which is free and it includes a good antivirus, firewall and webb shield. It has also the best anti-theft (only for rooted phones) with better features than both Cerberus and Androidlost. And the most thing im happy with it is that with Avast you can located or do other things to your lost phone without having internet Wifi/3G on, because both Cerberus and Androidlost doesnt work if the internet connetion on the phone is off,

So I really recommend it to people who have rooted phones to download avast! Mobile Security which is free, on Market. You wont belive how good it is!

Edited March 9, 2012 by t.A.T.u