Mobile Security Review September 2014

Introduction

Smartphones represent the future of modern communications. In 2013, more than 1 billion smartphones were sold, a further milestone in the advance of these devices. A study published by Facebook emphasises the importance of smartphones in our lives; about 80% of users make use of their smartphone within 15 minutes of waking up each day.
At the same time, the traditional function of a telephone is becoming less and less important. The high quality of integrated cameras means that the smartphone is increasingly used for photography. As well as with photos, users trust their devices with their most personal communications, such as Facebook, WhatsApp and email. This brings some risks with it, as such usage makes the smartphone interesting for criminals, who attempt to infect the device with malware or steal personal data. There is also the danger brought by phishing attacks.

The products that participated in this year’s test are listed below. The manufacturers either provided us with the latest version of their product, or confirmed that it was available from the Google Play Store at the time of the test (July 2014). After the test, manufacturers had the opportunity to fix any flaws we found. Any problems that have already been solved are noted in the report.

• Detailed Report

Tested Products

• Ahnlab V3 Mobile 2.1.2.13
• avast! Mobile Security 3.0.7650
• Avira Antivirus Security 3.5.2983
• Baidu Mobile Manager 5.2.0
• Bitdefender Mobile Security 2.19.344
• Cheetah Mobile Clean Master 5.6.0
• Cheetah Mobile CM Security 1.6.1
• ESET Mobile Security 3.0.937.0-15
• F-Secure Mobile Security 9.2.15183
• G DATA Internet Security 25.3.0
• IKARUS mobile.security 1.7.20
• Kaspersky Internet Security 11.4.4.232
• Kingsoft Mobile Security 3.3.1
• McAfee Mobile Security 4.1.0.543
• Quick Heal Total Security 2.00.021
• Sophos Security and Antivirus 3.5.1324
• Tencent Mobile Manager 4.8.2
• Trend Micro Mobile Security & Antivirus 5.0
• Webroot SecureAnywhere Mobile Complete 3.6.0.6610

Test Procedure

The security products were updated and tested on the 11th July 2014. The result reached by Qihoo in this test is not applicable to the English product version available in the Google playstore, which is different to the version that Qihoo provides in Chinese and English on their website. Therefore the results of Qihoo are not shown here.

The test was conducted with an active Internet connection on genuine Android smartphones (no emulators were used). The test set consisted exclusively of .APK files. An on-demand scan was conducted first. After this, every undetected app was installed manually. We did this to allow the products to detect the malware using real-time protection.

Testcases

We collected the malware samples used in the test during the period of few months leading up to the test. 3991 malicious applications were used to create a representative test set. So-called “potentially unwanted apps” were not used in the test.

We additionally conducted a false-positive test using the top 100 ad-free programs from the Google Play Store. None of the products tested produced any false positives with these apps.

Test Results

The chart below shows, that the protection rates against real Android malware are very high. This might be due to the increasingly aggressive detection by app reputation for apps that are not on Google Play, but maybe also because many of the participants in our test are leading mobile security vendors with good protection rates.

Notes

The mobile products of Baidu, Kingsoft and Tencent are currently only available as Chinese-language versions. The result reached by Qihoo in this test is not applicable to the English product version available in the Google playstore, which is different to the version that Qihoo provides in Chinese and English on their website. Therefore the results of Qihoo are not shown here.

Copyright and Disclaimer

This publication is Copyright © 2014 by AV-Comparatives ®. Any use of the results, etc. in whole or in part, is ONLY permitted after the explicit written agreement of the management board of AV-Comparatives prior to any publication. AV-Comparatives and its testers cannot be held liable for any damage or loss, which might occur as result of, or in connection with, the use of the information provided in this paper. We take every possible care to ensure the correctness of the basic data, but a liability for the correctness of the test results cannot be taken by any representative of AV-Comparatives. We do not give any guarantee of the correctness, completeness, or suitability for a specific purpose of any of the information/content provided at any given time. No one else involved in creating, producing or delivering test results shall be liable for any indirect, special or consequential damage, or loss of profits, arising out of, or related to, the use or inability to use, the services provided by the website, test documents or any related data.

For more information about AV-Comparatives and the testing methodologies, please visit our website.

AV-Comparatives
(September 2014)