As tablets and smartphones continue to grow in popularity, so too does the number of threats from unscrupulous individuals. While antivirus for traditional desktop computers is a well established class of software, the number of serious antivirus offerings for mobile devices is notably lacking. Because mobile devices are so popular, they clearly present an attractive target for hackers to steal data or cause general problems on your device.
360 Mobile Security – Antivirus is a new lightweight and robust antivirus suite available now on both iOS and Android. The iOS version appears to lack several major features of the Android version and is more of a ‘security advisor’ and photo vault with few actual antivirus abilities. It can scan for threats but is unable to remove them and does not offer real time protection. It does have a process manager and the vault feature lets you store data in a password protected area that is invisible to other users.
The Android version is a proper antivirus app and is able to scan and remove viruses and other threats. As with many antivirus programs, you can select Quick or Full scan. It does a good job of keeping you informed as to what the scan has detected and what the app can potentially do to remove the threat. Once a scan is complete, you have control over whether fixes are applied or not. 360 Mobile Security has real time antivirus protection so it continuously tries to detect malicious activity on the device and also updates through the cloud frequently. The Privacy Advisor acts as a task manager and shows what data each app has access to. You can force stop, clear cache, and delete specific apps from the advisor and it’s a useful way of seeing if a process is misbehaving.
The app also offers hotfixes for your specific device that automatically patch known vulnerabilities. You can free up system resources or clear your usage history with a few taps for general maintenance. There is a floating window feature as well which lets you quickly apply actions from any app or anywhere on the device without opening 360 Mobile Security. You tap the floating window icon and a wheel appears which lets you quickly toggle system settings or start a scan.
360 Mobile Security – Antivirus is available free on Google Play and the App Store. Check it out if you’ve been considering a mobile antivirus app.