AV-Comparatives Mobile Security Review – August 2015

Austria based AV-Comparatives has released their Mobile Security Review -  August 2015.  This is quite an extensive document, providing a comprehensive review of sixteen security packages running on Android.  The document runs  seventy pages. Ten of the sixteen products are free.  Almost 2400 malicious applications were used in the test.

Mobile security is crucial for both home users (who are constantly checking their mobile) as well as businesses. The BYOD camel has entered its nose into the intranet tent and it’s not going to be removed.  Mobile devices are a major weak spot for network access, as well as a place where data can be accessed. Data stored on the phone can be stolen, as well.    The Global BYOD market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 25.32% from 2014 to 2019 according to a   new market research report published on September 15.    whattech.com market research report  . These devices need to be protected.

AV-Comparatives, while giving each of the products an approved rating, nonetheless found that the there was overall a “significant overall improvement” in the standard of the products.

Four of the  products provided 100% protection:   Trend Micro with no false alarms, BitDefender,   G Data (both with three  false alarms) and Antiy (with five) rounded out the top four.

AVG Technologies  offering trailed all products tested with 98.4% protection and 4 false alarms. Just above AVG Technologies was Sophos with 99.2% protection and 0 false alarms. 

For those who are interested in a tabular deep dive comparison, the first table compares which of 75 permissions are in each of the products. No product had all of them.

The Feature List table compares the products on over forty attributes, broken down into categories including Anti-Malware, Anti-Theft, Anti-Spam, Parental Control, Authentication, Additional Features, and Support. McAfee Mobile Security lacked the fewest, missing only three.  This product drained the mobile battery a bit more than the others did.

A great deal of work went into this document. The Mobile Security Review can be found free (!) at

http: //www.av-comparatives.org/mobile-security/  .  Complete copyright and disclaimer information is contained in the document and more information about test procedures is on the website.

AVC UnDroid Analyser

AV-Comparatives (www.av-comparatives.com) has also introduced a slick malware analysis tool, the UnDroid Analyser that is free to users. It’s a static system for detecting suspected Android malware and adware and generating some statistics about it. Check it out at http://www.av-comparatives.org/avc-analyzer  .

Addendum

 View AV-Comparatives September Malware Removal Test at

Malware Removal Test - September 2015

Sometimes You Have to Pick Your Partners Carefully- Huawei

October 5 addendum - "60 Minutes" to have story on Huawei on October 6
 http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/2012/10/huawei-on-60-minutes-sunday-night.html

Interesting August 27 article (and video) by CNET, “Inside Huawei, and the Chinese tech giant that’s rattling nerves in DC”.  Huawei is a $32 billion technology company, with 140,000 employees worldwide  (including Silicon Valley in California) and the holder of over 50,000 patents.  A US congressional committee has been having ongoing discussions with the organization because of their fears that the company may be a national security threat.

According to the article, “Congressmen Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) said they were investigating "the threat posed to our critical infrastructure and counter-intelligence posture by companies with potential ties to the Chinese government.”  Some of this does come across as posturing in an election year.  In because this in involved with the  area of national security, the internet, hacking activities,  corporate and government “monitoring” of other nations by governments, there’s a cause for some concern.

Why Huawei?  The House Intelligence Committee has been vague, according to the article.  They said that they  “have received claims with varying degrees of credibility about cyberattacks internationally that may have been enabled by Huawei technology.”  This may be a bit of a stretch.  Nonetheless, the US government is specific with high tech companies about technologies that can’t be sold to specific countries, such as Syria.  

In March, the Australian government blocked Huawei from bidding on any contracts for the country's A$38 billion (roughly US$39 billion) National Broadband Network.

Symantec had ended a four-year-old joint venture with Huawei earlier in the year because of fears that the relationship could prevent it from getting information from the US about cyberthreats. Neither article discusses whether other US or global antivirus vendors such as Mcafee, Avg Technologies, Kaspersky, Sophos,  or Trend Micro, have a relationship with Huawei. Some immediate questions?  Are there areas that aren't cyber security sensitive that these companies could partner with Huawei on? What's the  tradeoff between immediate  business justification, public relations hits and  potential long term business?  It's that perception versus reality thing.

Slight correction - AVG Technologies could be in a quiet mode with respect to Huawei.  From a Thursday morning Google search using  Huawei and AVG Technologies:

AVG Partners with Huawei

blogs.avg.com/view-from-the-top/avg-partners-huawei/

1 day ago - AVG security solutions are now provided to millions of Huawei customers globally, starting in ... And now, through our new alliance with Huawei, a leading global ...

This is probably AVG Technologies' Mobilation antivirus product for the  Android OS. There also seems to be a promotion going on (can't tell exactly where) for home users owning a Huawei smart phone.

In January, the Pentagon transferred an information-sharing pilot program, called the Joint Cybersecurity Services Pilot, to the Department of Homeland Security.  Originally, the program was intended to share classified National Security Agency intelligence with military contractors.  The government was expected    to extend the program beyond those companies to antivirus companies, like Symantec, and network providers.  According to a March article in the New York Times, Symantec became “worried that its ties to Huawei would be a disadvantage when it came to being the recipient of classified threat information”. 

In 2011, Huawei released their   "Statement on Establishing a Global Cyber Security Assurance System".  Huawei held four meetings in 2011 to decide on   the company’s overall cyber security strategy.  Huawei stated that they are “Willing to work with all governments, customers and partners through various channels to jointly cope with cyber security threats and challenges from cyber security.”

   

In the enterprise, Huawei has an extensive portfolio of products in networking, IT infrastructure, and security.  On the consumer side, products include mobile phones, tablets, broadband, and modems.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57484472-94/inside-huawei-the-chinese-tech-giant-thats-rattling-nerves-in-dc/   

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/technology/symantec-dissolves-alliance-with-huawei-of-china.html?_r=1

 

The End Is Near For Paid Antivirus On PCs

This was the premise of an interesting article by Mathew Schwarz in an Information Week article on June 23. http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/antivirus/231000191 . Eric Domage, manager of western European security research and consulting for IDC, stated, “This is a highly commoditized sector. It used to be a market, but now it's a commodity--look at what Microsoft is now doing for free."

The freemium market has worked for several vendors. Microsoft created a bit of a disruptive event when they unleashed their free Microsoft Security Essentials. Excluding trial basis programs, www.download.com has approximately 60 free antivirus downloads on their site.

Some of this may be a definition issue. Antivirus is only a small portion of “malware”. The masses use the phrases interchangeably. Antivirus vendors hope that people will migrate up to a paid antivirus product or an internet security suite.

At the same time, traditional viruses are not the problem. Most major security vendors have written though leader ship whitepapers on internet threats. They detail the most current threats and how the battle has moved out to the cloud and there is more danger from getting infected while surfing the internet.

The larger vendors, on the business side of the fence, promote a multi-layered approach that begins with the cloud and often ends at the desktop. Or increasingly, they utilize a cloud solution for their desktops, road warriors, and mobile devices.

"McAfee and Symantec have decided to escape this market," said Domage in the article. CA decided to sell much of its security portfolio to UpData partners in June http://www.crn.com/news/security/229500801/ca-to-sell-antivirus-business.htm

A new market for these vendors is mobile devices using Symbian (shrinking) and Android operating systems. This includes tablets as well as smart phones. Some of the security vendors have a free product. Others have incorporated it into other technology security solutions. Those offering a free product often market a premium version. Trend Micro, Kaspersky, AVG Technologies, F-Secure, and McAfee, for example, all offer some kind of mobile security solution. some of them free.

In the denouement, while the end may be near for paid antivirus on the desktop, threats still exist. The battlefield has moved more extensively out to the internet. Protection is still essential. It costs companies to develop solutions. They need to continue to invest and these investments have to be recouped.

Below is a non-comprehensive set of links to some vendors providing security solutions for mobile devices.

http://www.f-secure.com/en_US/products/mobile/, http://usa.kaspersky.com/products-services/home-computer-security/mobile-security, http://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/personal/mobile-security-for-android/, http://home.mcafee.com/Store/ , http://www.avg.com/us-en/antivirus-for-android