Android and security

I was reading a little article earlier about Norton releasing an app that allows you to control your Norton 360 application on Windows from a anywhere, presumably to allow you to run a definition update or induce a mind-numbingly slow virus scan (never been a fan of Norton, sorry).

This got me thinking about Android and security. We keep or lives on our phones; the people near and dear to our hearts, appointments, emails, text messages, photos, music, videos.... the list goes on. But what if, god forbid, we should lose our precious device out of negligence or theft? There are a few options out there for the more paranoid of users...

WaveSecure
Our good old friend WaveSecure (for root users) - an application many of us have used at some point or another, including myself. This has been around for a while on all the major phone OSs - Symbian, Blackberry OS, Windows Mobile and Android. If memory serves me correctly, those of us who signed up for an account before either the end or January and the end of this month have free accounts for life - but what do we get from this application? Well, the ability to back up our contacts, SMS and MMS messages and various other personal settings.

A great feature of WaveSecure is the ability to remotely wipe our phones of all personal data via a single SMS from an allowed number or via the WaveSecure website. This is what originally sold me on to the idea back when my trusty G1 was fresh out of the box and I am sure this is what sold most of us who have tried it at some time or another as well. The other major selling point of this app is that the second another SIM is inserted in to your phone and it is booted up - the user is blocked out, asked for a PIN number and an SMS containing all relevant details (phone number of the blocked SIM etc.) is automatically sent to the number you have already set up for the wipe feature. WaveSecure appears to be a trustworthy company so I have no problem with them having my personal information locked up.

F-Secure

Second in the list is the brand new app from F-Secure, the antivirus guys. As far as I can tell from the brief overview, this is pretty much identical to WaveSecure. But being from F-Secure, I am sure many people would prefer to use it since it is a well known name in the Windows anti-virus business. Their pricing plan seems pretty reasonable - pretty similar to what you would pay for a year of PC security from most major companies. £30 for 1 year and £50 for 2 years of service.

Unfortunately, there are two major holes in these solutions.

Downside
Firstly, anyone who knows how to use google will quickly find out how to boot in to recovery mode and perform a wipe. They will not have access to your personal data, but they will be able to use your phone without issue. With apps2sd enabled, WaveSecure stays on the phone but seems to get rather confused after a wipe. I found that I had to manually remove the .apk to make my phone work afterwards. I know, this is strange since a wipe should remove all user settings for all apps.

Secondly, there is nothing to stop a thief from using your SIM in another phone. Most of us with Android phones are on contracts. If someone was to get a hold of our SIM cards we could end up with huge bills for phone calls. It is a good idea to have insurance on your phone just in case this happens.

The insurance companies do badger you if you try to cancel siting this as a reason why you should not leave them. I know because I recently cancelled my insurance. I ended up having an argument with the guy over whether or not you are bound by British law to pay for fraudulent usage on credit cards or phone calls (I am right but he refused to admit it). Phone companies can demand payment for fraudulent usage but they have no legal backing so long as you inform them "within a suitable amount of time".

I am sure there are more solutions out there, but personally I don't tend to use these apps. For those of us who don't want to go down these (pricey) roads. SIM PINs, unlock patterns and just keeping your phone safe are the cheapest, most effective solutions for the average user and they do not require root to implement.

Thankfully, there are no viruses as of yet for Android, although there has been a few pieces of malicious software that have made it on to the Android Market. So, the only advice I can really offer is to be vigilant and use a bit of common sense.