Norton Mobile Security 2014

Protecting your Android device from malicious apps and other forms of malware is a must. With a perfect malware detection score from AV-Test, Norton Mobile Security by Symantec has anti-malware protection down pat. However, the app's privacy, anti-theft and other security features aren't quite up to the same level as the competition. MORE: Best Android Anti-Virus Software 2014 Setup and interface We had some difficulty setting up Norton's app the first time. First, we signed up for a Norton account online via login.norton.com. We downloaded the Norton Mobile Security app from the Google Play app store and signed in using our Norton-account email address and password. We then tapped "Upgrade to Premium" in Norton Mobile Security. The app sent us an automatic email message with an embedded URL, instructing us to open the URL from our mobile device, a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4. But the URL simply took us back to Google Play. Returning to the Web portal and entering our Premium code didn't work, either. We finally uninstalled and reinstalled Norton Mobile Security to activate its premium features. This created another problem: Norton said we had already registered our device. We then factory-reset our phone and downloaded Norton Mobile Security from the Google Play store again. This time we made a new Norton account with a new email and password from within the app, then tapped "I have already purchased" to enter our promo code. This worked perfectly. Once you do get Norton Mobile Security up and running, you'll be greeted by a home page divided into six buttons: "Anti-Malware," "Anti-Theft," "Backup," "Call Blocking," "Web Protection" and "Norton Apps." (If you haven't paid for the premium version, you'll also see a gap at the bottom of the screen, then a bar suggesting you upgrade.) MORE: Mobile Security Guide: Everything You Need to Know Tapping each button launches a corresponding menu; you can also swipe to the left or right to cycle through the menus. Tapping our Galaxy S4's physical menu button launched Norton Mobile Security's settings menu, which listed a few more anti-theft features; other devices may have an in-app menu icon. Norton Mobile Security's interface looks attractive and is perfectly functional, but the gap at the bottom and the extra features found only under the settings menu give the app a slightly unpolished feel. Mobile-security apps from Lookout, McAfee and Avast feel more streamlined while containing more information. Detection and performance Norton's most recent build, 3.8 for Android 4.3, achieved a perfect score on AV-Test's malware detection scan, detecting 100 percent of the 2,191 types of malware the test threw at it. In our latest round of reviews, only McAfee and Kaspersky also had perfect scores. Lookout and Avast weren't far behind with scores of 99.4 percent and 98.7 percent, respectively. However, Norton Mobile Security did not detect the well-known EICAR test virus, which we downloaded using mobile Chrome, even after multiple scans. A Norton representative told us that Norton Mobile Security doesn't scan ".com" files (a type of DOS executable file) such as the EICAR test virus because they're no threat to Android devices. Nevertheless, the other four mobile anti-virus apps we tested found it. MORE: Best PC Anti-Virus Software 2014 Norton Mobile Security may also slow your phone's performance during a malware scan. Our Samsung Galaxy S4 scored 2,212 on the Geekbench 3 benchmark test before installing Norton, 2,322 after installation and 1,666 during a scan. The 656-point performance hit while scanning was smaller than McAfee's 1,064 or Kaspersky's 774, but more than Avast's 626-point hit. Lookout's delta during a scan was only 130 points. Anti-theft and data protection When you first access Norton Mobile Security's anti-theft features, the app generates a four-digit passcode for locking and unlocking your phone or tablet. From Norton's Web portal at mobilesecurity.norton.com, you can remotely lock the device, make it "scream" (sounding a klaxon-like alarm), locate it via GPS, wipe it of all personal data such as contact information and call history, or back up its contacts -- all standard anti-theft features. You can also activate Norton's anti-theft features by texting commands such as "lock" or "scream," followed by your four-digit PIN, to your phone. Of the four other mobile-security apps we tested, only Avast let users do this. The last anti-theft feature, Sneak Peek, lets you remotely take a photo with your device's front-facing camera. We like that these photos appear right in the Web portal, although the portal can store only the 10 most recent images. Sneak Peek can't be activated by texting. Norton's Backup feature lets you upload your phone's contacts to Norton's servers, from which you can also restore contacts to a device. The app doesn't back up any other content. For comparison, Lookout Mobile Security backs up contacts, photos and call history, and McAfee and Avast back up text messages, call logs, contacts and media files such as photos and videos. Avast also backs up apps. Of the apps we reviewed, only Kaspersky had no backup feature. Norton's Call Blocking feature lets you create a "Block List" of numbers that you don't want calling and texting your phone, helping eliminate spam. Lookout's app didn't have this feature at all, but Kaspersky, Avast and McAfee all offered much more nuanced control over calling and texting blacklists than Norton. Norton's Web Protection feature prevents you from loading potentially malicious websites in the mobile Chrome browser or default Android browser. It defaults to "on" as soon as Norton Mobile Security is installed. Lookout and Kaspersky's security apps had nearly identical features, but McAfee's Web protection covered only the Android browser. MORE: 8 Best Android Backup Apps Avast's mobile app, on the other hand, protected Amazon Silk and Boat Browser as well as Chrome and the Android browser. Avast also plans to add support for the popular Dolphin browser. Additional anti-theft features are available in Norton Mobile Security's settings menu, found by tapping the Android device's menu button or, on some devices, an in-app menu button. There, users can activate the SIM Card Lock, which will lock the device if its SIM card is removed, or set the device to wipe itself after 10 failed unlock attempts. Only Kaspersky also has this SIM card feature. Web console Norton's Web console is accessible from its main website at us.norton.com. From there, it takes some clicking, but you'll get to mobilesecurity.norton.com, where you can remotely lock, wipe, back up and locate the device, or make it emit that horrible wailing noise via the "Scream" button. The Web console also lets you activate the "Sneak Peek" feature. Premium vs. Lite Norton Mobile Security's premium version costs $29.99 for one year, or $49.99 for two years. The company's Lite version, which can be downloaded for free on the Google Play app store, includes the app's complete anti-virus functionality, as well as the ability to remotely lock your device via the Web portal or text messages. The other anti-theft features, as well as backup, call blocking and Web protection, are premium-only. Verdict Norton is a top anti-virus provider; even if it tripped over the EICAR test, its perfect AV-Test score counts for far more. The app also comes with most of the features an average phone user will want from a security app, as well as the ability to control the app via SMS commands and a feature that automatically locks a phone if the SIM card is removed. However, Norton Mobile Security is lighter on features than its main competitors, both for its Lite and Premium versions, and the features it does have can't be customized as much as other apps permit. Norton's data backup and call and text blacklists are also bare minimum, and it doesn't have a privacy adviser feature at all. Compared to McAfee Mobile Security, which also got a perfect AV-Test score, Norton's features are pretty limited. Norton Mobile Security gets the job done, but before you make your decision, remember that you have other options.

Kaspersky Internet Security for Android

Long a Windows security powerhouse, Kaspersky Lab has recently established a strong mobile presence with Kaspersky Internet Security for Android. In the latest version, a new alarm feature works with an anti-theft management portal to help you track down a lost or stolen device and even remotely photograph the perp. The app also provides protection from malware and phishing attacks. Add in built-in data privacy and filtering tools for calls and texts, and you have a fairly well-rounded mobile security solution. However, the app could be easier to use. MORE: Best Android Anti-Virus Software 2014 Setup To set up Kaspersky Internet Security for Android, go to the Google Play store, search for the app and tap "Install." Users can also sideload the app by going to Kaspersky's Software Upgrades Web page and manually downloading the .apk file. Setup is simple: After the app finishes downloading, choose your country of residence, accept the Privacy Statement and End User License Agreement and create a Kaspersky account by providing an email address and a password. This registered our Samsung Galaxy S4 for Kaspersky’s free anti-malware protection and features. At this point, tapping the shield icon in the app will start the first anti-malware scan. Then we went to the Web portal and entered an activation key for the premium version for the app which could be applied to up to 5 devices. After activating, we chose from the Web portal to apply it to our Samsung Galaxy 4, which activated the premium features on our device. Interface The home screen of Kaspersky Internet Security for Android is devoted to an oversized color-coded shield icon: It's green if the app thinks you're secure, yellow if you're at risk and red if there's a serious threat. This visual signal gets the point across, but it's light on details and heavy on alarm. The app has two main menus. The first, and more visible is a tab in the upper right corner, indicated by the standard Android menu symbol, three horizontal white lines. Click that, and you'll go to a page with information about the last scan performed, whether you need to update the anti-virus database and what kind of license you're running. The more useful, but less obvious, menu is on the homepage in the lower right-hand corner indicated by a caret in a white circle. Tapping this option displays the app's other features, such as Privacy Protection and Anti-Theft. Detection and performance Kaspersky Internet Security for Android provides three different anti-virus-scanning options: "Quick scan" for installed apps, "Full scan" for the entire device and "Folder scan," which only looks at a specified folder and its subfolders. Avast, McAfee and Lookout also give you full scan or partial scan options. The app's most recent build, 11.2 for Android 4.3, got a perfect score on AV-Test's malware detection scan, successfully locating all 2,191 malware samples the testers threw at it. McAfee Mobile Security and Norton Mobile Security also achieved perfect scores; Lookout and Avast weren’t far behind with respective scores of 99.4 percent and 98.7 percent. MORE: Mobile Security Guide: Everything You Need to Know We put the app's anti-virus capabilities to the test, downloading the well-known test virus called EICAR onto our Samsung Galaxy S4. Any mobile anti-virus software package worth its salt should pass this very basic test. Kaspersky Internet Security for Android did not alert us when we downloaded EICAR using the mobile Chrome browser. However, when we ran a scan, the app easily picked up the EICAR files and moved them to quarantine. Installing Kaspersky Internet Security on your phone or tablet could improve its performance, but the app's scan may significantly slow down your device while it's in progress. Our test Galaxy S4 phone scored a 2,145 on the Geekbench 3 performance test before installing Kaspersky, then a higher 2,347 afterward. But the benchmark during a full scan was 1,573, substantially lower. That's a performance hit, or delta, of 774 points. Lookout Mobile Security only saw a delta of 130 points, and Avast (626-point difference) and Norton (656) also fared better. Only McAfee's app caused our S4 to take a bigger hit (1,064 points). Anti-theft and data protection To activate Kaspersky Internet Security for Android's anti-theft features, you need to give the app administrative privileges; tap "Anti-Theft" in the app and it will walk you through the process. From the Kaspersky Web portal, users can locate a device via GPS and get it to emit an alarm. Kaspersky offers two ways to remotely wipe device data. "Wipe personal data" deletes all data on the phone or tablet's microSD memory card (if it has one) as well as call history, your Google Play account, email and social-networking accounts, text messages, contacts and calendar events. "Wipe data" wipes everything on the memory card and the phone, including all user-installed apps, and restores the phone to its default factory settings. MORE: 9 Tips to Stay Safe on Public Wi-Fi The "Mugshot" feature uses the device's front-facing camera to take five rapid photos of the phone's location or its user and immediately posts the photos on the Web portal. Kaspersky’s anti-theft features are standard among all the mobile security suites we reviewed. Kaspersky Internet Security for Android also has a couple of a smartphone-only features. SIM Watch immediately locks the phone if the SIM card is removed and sends you an email alert that includes the device's location. If you've given the Kaspersky app permission to access your location, SIM Watch can switch on GPS and locate your phone more precisely. It's the same with the alarm; even if your ringer is set to mute, the device will emit a loud noise if the alarm is activated. The other smartphone-only feature, Privacy Protection, hides your phone's contacts and communications. If you hand your phone to someone else to show them a picture or a video, that person won't be able to snoop on your personal conversations. (You can exit Privacy Protection mode with a passcode you set up in the Kaspersky app.) The Browser feature in the Kaspersky app, on both smartphones and tablets, can be activated with a single tap. Kaspersky will block any malicious links and webpages on the built-in Android browser as well as on Google Chrome. Norton and Lookout’s security apps have nearly identical features, but McAfee’s Web protection extends only to the Android browser. Avast's app, on the other hand, covers Chrome, the Android browser, Amazon's Silk browser and the Chinese Boat Browser; support for the popular Dolphin browser is in development. Finally, the Call and Text Filter feature creates blacklists and whitelists for phone numbers, cutting down on unwanted calls and SMS spam. Parents can set their children's phones to only receive calls and texts from specified numbers. Among rival security apps we tested, Lookout Mobile Security didn't offer any blacklisting feature at all, and Norton could create only blacklists. McAfee and Avast, however, offered much more nuanced control over blacklists and whitelists. Kaspersky notably doesn't have a data-backup feature. Most Android phones have built-in Google backup features, but the other apps we reviewed offered some kind of alternative data backup. MORE: Best Anti-Virus Software 2014 Norton, for example, had the most basic backup plan, letting you back up your contact list. Lookout adds call logs and photos to that; McAfee beats Lookout by adding text messages and videos; and Avast backs up everything McAfee does, plus apps. Web console Kaspersky's Web portal is clean and efficient. Sign in with an email address and password at my.kaspersky.com — which is not linked to from the main Kaspersky site — and you'll see a page listing your registered devices. Click a device to access its anti-theft features. The portal will tell you if your device's anti-virus database is up to date and whether it is protected. Clicking "Lost Your Device" will access the anti-theft features such as lock, alarm, locate, Mug Shot and data wipe. You can also recover a forgotten PIN. Premium vs. free The free version of Kaspersky Internet Security for Android is a limited version of the paid app. It still scans for malware using Kaspersky's thorough database of threats, but the scans are not automatic; you'll have to go into the app and press "Scan." Privacy Protection, Call and Text Filter and the safe browser are all premium-only features. The free version does include automatic updates of the anti-virus database — the strongest part of Kaspersky's mobile protection — and all of the anti-theft features accessible from the Web portal. That's not as feature-rich as the free version of Lookout Mobile Security, which lets users back up contacts to the cloud, install backed-up contacts to new devices and, through its "Signal Flare" feature, even locate lost devices with dead batteries. Verdict Kaspersky Internet Security for Android's anti-virus detection rate is top-notch. It also comes with all the anti-theft features you'd need, plus the ability to hide personal information, such as contacts and messages, from the prying eyes of friends and family. However, Kaspersky's unintuitive interface is a turn-off, and the app doesn't offer as many features as Avast Mobile Security or Lookout Mobile Security. Notably absent is a privacy adviser that shows you how much personal information all installed apps access. Kaspersky gets the job done, and you can trust it to keep your phone safe from malware. But you may want to check out other options first.

McAfee Mobile Security (2014)

As mobile malware becomes more prevalent, most PC antivirus companies now offer Android security products as well. McAfee stands out among its competitors with an excellent malware detection record, a good interface and an impressively thorough set of features, such as its comprehensive anti-theft options and a privacy advisor that shows you how much personal information your device's other apps absorb. Most of these features are available in the app's free version. However, McAfee isn't quite as feature-rich as Avast or as easy to use as Lookout, and our tests showed it could decrease your phone's performance. How does McAfee stack up compared to the competition?) MORE: Best Android Anti-Virus Software 2014 Setup and interface Setting up McAfee Mobile Security is a breeze. You can either install it from the Google Play app store or visit the McAfee website, which will eventually lead you back to Google Play. After installation, the program will first ask you to create a 6-digit PIN, which you'll use to modify and regulate some of McAfee's privacy features. The app then asks permission to become a device administrator; with this permission, the app can access your screen-unlock password, track incorrect unlock attempts and, if necessary, perform a quick factory reset — all part of anti-theft protection. After a quick and colorful tutorial, you'll arrive at the app's home screen; from here, the app will begin its first security scan. The home screen looks busier than those of other mobile security apps. McAfee's app has many features and presents you with a lot of information, but once you start actually using the app, its excellent organization makes everything very clear. The screen consists of five main buttons: Security, Privacy, Web Security, Backup and Find Device. Tap any of these, and you'll see three buttons: a gear for settings, an "i" for information and a question mark that links to a very thorough help page. McAfee makes the only mobile-security app we've tested that offers such ready access to its customer-support documentation. Detection and performance Of the five mobile antivirus apps in our most recent round of reviews, McAfee Mobile Security scored highest for combined protection and usability in tests conducted by German lab AV-Test. McAfee Mobile Security detected 100 percent of the 2,191 pieces of malware AV-Test threw at our phone. Only Kaspersky Internet Security and Norton Mobile Security attained similarly perfect scores; Lookout Mobile Security and Avast Mobile Security & Antivirus weren't far behind, with scores of 99.4 percent and 98.7 percent, respectively. We tested out McAfee Mobile Security for ourselves, downloading the well-known EICAR test virus to our Samsung Galaxy S4 via the Chrome browser. McAfee allowed us to download the file, but when we initiated a scan, McAfee's app flagged the file as potentially malicious. (Lookout Mobile Security was the only app that warned us immediately as soon as we tried to download EICAR.) After detecting the malware, McAfee presented us a detailed report on the file and gave us the opportunity to keep or remove the test malware. MORE: Best PC Anti-Virus Software 2014 We found that our Galaxy S4 took quite a big performance hit while running a malware scan with McAfee Mobile Security. Before installing McAfee Mobile Security, our phone scored 2,145 on Geekbench 3, rising to 2,293 after the app was installed. With a full malware scan going, the score dropped by nearly half, to 1,229 — a performance hit of 1,064 points. Full scans took about three minutes. Of all five mobile-security apps we tested, McAfee slowed our phone down the most. Lookout caused the smallest slow-down, with a performance hit of only 130 points (from 2,166 down to 2,036), followed by Avast with 626, Norton with 656 and Kaspersky with 774. Anti-theft and data protection McAfee's anti-theft features are located under the Find Device tab. The options are Locate (find your phone or tablet via GPS), Lock (lock the screen using the McAfee PIN), CaptureCam (have the device take a picture of its user with the device's front-facing camera) and Wipe (delete all user data). Each of the above features can be activated through the McAfee Web portal, except for CaptureCam, which snaps a photo automatically after too many failed unlock attempts or if you send a lock message to your phone and someone responds to it. The app sends CaptureCam photos to the email address registered with your McAfee account. McAfee's unique "Buddy List" feature lets you specify people to be notified if your device is lost, and who will serve as backups in case you forget your PIN. The Backup tab lets you back up files to McAfee's cloud servers. You can back up text messages, call logs, contacts, and media files, such as photos and videos. You can also restore data from the cloud to your device, or wipe your phone or tablet of user data. Only the Avast Mobile Security & Antivirus app had better backup features than McAfee, because Avast could back up installed apps as well as other data. By comparison, Lookout backed up only contact info, photos and call history; Norton backed up only contact info; and Kaspersky didn't back up anything at all. MORE: Mobile Security Guide: Everything You Need to Know Under the Web Security tab, the McAfee app protects the default Android browser, and only that browser, from loading malicious websites. Every other app we reviewed also protected the Chrome browser, and Avast went even further, covering Amazon's Silk browser and the Chinese Boat Browser. Avast is developing support for the popular Dolphin browser. Another McAfee feature scans Wi-Fi networks and warns you if a network isn't password-protected or if snoops are watching your Web traffic. Under the Privacy tab, McAfee has a few more data-protection features. McAfee's app can lock other apps individually; when locked, each requires your 6-digit McAfee PIN before granting access. You can also set up user profiles to control who can access apps, a feature that helps parents hand off devices to kids without worrying. We really like McAfee's Data Exposure feature, which scans apps to see how much data each one collects about you. The McAfee program also rates apps, shows which gather abnormal amounts of information and flags suspicious apps under the Notable Apps tab so you can review them. This is more thorough than Lookout's similar "Privacy Advisor" feature, but not as thorough as Avast's version, which breaks out your apps into detailed categories based on the type and quantity of information gathered. The last privacy feature lets you block calls and text messages based on several criteria. You can create a "NoList" (a blacklist) of telephone numbers to block, or a more restrictive "YesList" (whitelist) of approved numbers. You can choose to block text messages that contain certain keywords. You can also look at a Filter Log of blocked calls and texts. Kaspersky, Norton and Avast also have blacklist features, but only Avast gives users more nuanced control over these lists. Web portal McAfee's main website, www.mcafee.com, doesn't contain a direct link to the mobile app's Web portal sign-in. Instead, go to home.mcafee.com and click the Log In button on the upper right. Like the app, the McAfee Mobile Security Web portal's design is functional and full of information, without being overwhelming. Tabs at the top of the page correspond to devices registered to an individual McAfee account. Clicking a device's tab brings you to a page where you can remotely back up each device, view backed-up data, change a McAfee PIN, locate a device or make a device emit an alarm. You can also lock a phone or tablet so that only the PIN will open it (you can type a custom lockscreen message, too) and wipe the device's user data. MORE: 8 Best Android Backup Apps A "continuous tracking" feature, if enabled, will record your device's location every hour or every six hours. A side panel next to the list of the device's features makes it easy to chat with or call McAfee reps, or access a FAQ that walks you through the account's features. The site also has a mobile version customized for small screens. We'd like to see McAfee add the ability to access the CaptureCam feature directly from the Web portal. In the current app build, multiple failed unlock attempts trigger CaptureCam and send you an email automatically, but if you go looking for a button labeled "CaptureCam" on the Web portal, you're going to be disappointed. Premium vs. free The free version includes almost all McAfee Mobile Security's features, such as antivirus detection, browser protection and anti-theft features. The paid version only adds customer support and media backup, and removes the ads present in the free version. Verdict We were very impressed with McAfee Mobile Security's excellent malware detection, functional interface, huge range of features and expansive free offerings. McAfee gives you both a lot of options and a lot of details, but we never felt lost or overwhelmed. Our one serious issue with McAfee is that running the app's antivirus scan can result in a serious performance hit. It's also worth mentioning that Avast offers even more features than McAfee does, but for half the cost. For beginning mobile owners to more-advanced users, McAfee is an excellent Android antivirus app for a wide range of devices.

Lookout Mobile Security (2014)

Pros: Excellent mobile interface; Fastest scan with least impact on phone's performance; Helpful Privacy Advisor feature; Scans for adware Cons: Malware detection less than perfect; No blacklists; Lacks ability to create user profiles or protect apps Verdict: Lookout Mobile Security is an excellent mobile security app that offers an intuitive interface and useful privacy features with negligible performance impact. It may seem like a relative newcomer to the anti-virus field, but Lookout created one of the first mobile security solutions in 2008, and its mobile-only emphasis is reflected in its app's excellent interface design and streamlined approach. Compared to the other anti-malware apps we tested, the Lookout Mobile Security app has little impact on your smartphone's performance, even when it's conducting a full-system malware scan. Lookout Mobile Security recently added more nuanced adware-detection (aside from being annoying, adware can drain battery life and bandwidth). Add it all up, and Lookout is a very strong package. MORE: Best Android Anti-Virus Software 2014 Setup Setting up Lookout Mobile Security is simple. We downloaded the free app from the Google Play store, installed it on our Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4 and then ran through a brief tutorial. The app asks you to create a Lookout account with a username and password, and then gives you the option to upgrade to a premium account for $3 per month (or $30 per year). It also asks for permission to gather data for analysis from your phone or tablet in order to help the company respond to further threats. If you choose No Thanks to the premium offer, the app won't continue to beat you over the head with it, which we appreciated. You can add multiple devices to a single premium account at no extra charge. The whole setup process took about 2 minutes. Once that's done, the app immediately scans your device for malware. Interface Lookout Mobile Security's main interface is divided into two sections. The top shows notifications, such as which apps have been scanned recently. The bottom lists Lookout's other features: Security, Backup, Missing Device, Safe Browsing and Privacy Advisor, the last two of which are for premium subscribers only. Pressing the Menu button (which varies among Android devices) calls up the app's Settings, Account and Help. Overall, Lookout offers the best interface design of all the apps we tested. The layout is both intuitive and informative, and communicates a lot of information without becoming overwhelming or confusing. Detection and performance We put Lookout Mobile Security's malware scanner to the test by downloading, via the phone's Chrome browser, a ".com" version (a type of DOS executable) of the EICAR standard anti-virus test file. As soon as we initiated the download, a Lookout pop-up appeared, warning us that the file was a virus and asking if we wanted to remove it. We could also press More Info to get a detailed description of the virus. We tried downloading the file through the Firefox browser, to which Lookout's premium "Safe Browsing" feature does not extend. Even then, Lookout caught EICAR before the download even began. However, when we downloaded EICAR to an unprotected phone and then installed Lookout Mobile Security afterward, a malware scan didn't find the EICAR file. A Lookout representative told us that the app only scans recently downloaded files in order to save memory. MORE: Mobile Security Guide: Everything You Need to Know "If a user ever attempted to install a malicious app (not just download), we would detect it before it was installed," a Lookout representative said in an emailed statement. Since our last review of Lookout Mobile Security, the app has added detection to flag the most intrusive types of adware that can plague Android phones. Other security apps do this as well; McAfee and Kaspersky flag adware as "potentially unwanted programs" (PUPs) by default, and Avast identifies adware in its Privacy Advisor feature, not its malware scan. But Lookout has demonstrated the most consistent commitment to flagging problematic adware, even creating Mobile App Advertising Guidelines to better define the line between supporting a developer and invading users' privacy. German independent anti-malware testing lab AV-Test hasn't evaluated Lookout since September 2013, possibly because Lookout isn't widely used outside North America. Nevertheless, AV-Test's examination of Lookout 8.21 on Android 4.3 found that the app detected 99.4 percent of malware samples. That's much higher than the industry average of 90.5 percent. However, of the other mobile-security apps we tested, the offerings from Norton, Kaspersky and McAfee each achieved perfect malware-detection scores from AV-Test. Avast wasn't far behind, with 98.7 percent. MORE: Best Anti-Virus Software 2014 Lookout has spent the past year optimizing its app's speed, and it showed in our performance tests. We saw a Geekbench 3 score of 2,145 before installing Lookout Mobile Security on our Galaxy S4, and then a slightly improved rating of 2,166 afterward. We then ran Geekbench three times while Lookout's anti-virus scan was running and saw a slightly lower reading of 2,036. That's a performance hit of just 130 points, which makes Lookout far and away the best-performing app in this regard. All of the other security apps we tested showed a significantly higher delta, including Avast (626 points), Norton (656), Kaspersky (774) and McAfee (1,064). Whatever performance hit Lookout does cause, it's minimal, and should be undetectable by users. Anti-theft and data protection Tapping Missing Device on Lookout's home screen displays Lookout's extensive anti-theft features. When you run it for the first time, you'll be asked to enable two different settings: Location Services and GPS, and Better Protection. Tapping the former brings up a screen where you're asked to switch "Access to my location" to On, giving Lookout permission to access your phone's location services. It's an extra step to ask for permission, but we like how the app never assumes it knows better than you do. After initial setup, the Missing Device screen displays a Google Maps image of your device's location. You can locate it, as well as see a log of its recorded locations, from the Web portal. The Signal Flare feature, unique to Lookout, also automatically records your phone's GPS location and emails it to you when the device's battery is about to die. The second feature, Better Protection, lets you remotely erase your device's data, change the screen-unlock password and make the phone emit a loud alarm, as well as monitor the number of times someone tries and fails to unlock the screen. You can also set the device to silently take a picture with the front-facing camera and email it to you if someone enters five incorrect passcodes. These are all pretty standard features for mobile-security apps. Lookout's Backup feature lets you sync contact info, photos and call history to Lookout's cloud servers. In comparison, McAfee and Avast back up text messages, call logs, contacts and media files such as photos and videos, and Avast also backs up apps. (Norton can only back up users' contacts, and Kaspersky's security app offers no backup at all.) MORE: 7 Best Mobile Password Managers On the data-protection side, Lookout's premium Safe Browsing feature scans the websites you visit via the default Android browser and with Chrome, and lets you know if the website you're currently trying to access is potentially malicious. Norton's and Kaspersky's security apps have nearly identical features, but McAfee's Web protection only extends to the Android browser. Avast's protection, on the other hand, covers Chrome, the Android Browser, Amazon's Silk browser and the Chinese Boat Browser; support for the Dolphin browser is in development. We loved Lookout's premium Privacy Advisor feature, which scans installed apps and shows you the types of personal information they access, thus greatly increasing transparency about what happens on your device. Only Avast's Privacy Advisor feature offers a more nuanced look at apps and how they impact your privacy. Lookout was the only app we reviewed that did not offer the ability to create blacklists and whitelists for incoming calls and texts, which can cut down on spam, phishing attempts and help parents keep their kids safe on their mobile devices. Web console Lookout's Web console is easy to access from Lookout.com — just hit the Log In button on the upper right of the front page. The Web portal layout is clean, simple and contains a ton of functionalities, ranging from a feature that lets you remotely locate or wipe your device to the ability to see and redownload backed-up contacts and photos. Unlike the other security suites we tested, Lookout's site also automatically logs you out if you're idle for too long, thus protecting your privacy and security. Premium vs. free Lookout Mobile Security's premium version costs $3 per month, or $30 per year. The free version includes anti-virus functionality, backup and most of the anti-theft features, including remote location and Signal Flare. The remote-lock and remote-wipe features are premium-only, as are the Safe Browsing and Privacy Advisor features. Verdict Lookout Mobile Security was built from the ground up to be a mobile-first anti-virus service, and it shows in the app's excellent interface and minimal performance impact. The setup process is simple and intuitive, and Lookout transparently explains every one of its processes so you know exactly what it's doing on your phone. We also like Lookout's solid range of features, particularly its Privacy Advisor. However, Lookout is missing a blacklist feature, and its malware-detection record isn't quite as pristine as Norton's, McAfee's or Kaspersky's. More advanced users might want to check out McAfee's or Avast's mobile-security apps. But if you want the best mix of protection, features and performance, Lookout will more than satisfy.

Avast! Mobile Security & Antivirus

To get Avast's full security and privacy offerings, you'll have to also install Avast Anti-Theft and Avast Mobile Backup & Restore. You can find both apps in the Google Play app store; the main Avast app can walk you through installation as well. The process is straightforward, but it does make for a much lengthier setup than we found with the other apps we've tested. The app will ask you to set up a PIN of 4 to 6 digits, which can unlock Avast or the entire phone, as well give you the ability to send commands to the app via SMS. The home screen of Avast Mobile Security & Antivirus is a simple list of features: Virus Scanner, Anti-Theft, Backup, Application Locking, Privacy Advisor, Application Management, SMS and Call Filter, and Firewall. By pressing the menu button on our Samsung Galaxy S4, we could check for updates, change PINs and adjust other settings, such as exporting the app's activity log. MORE: Mobile Security Guide: Everything You Need to Know Some Android phones lack a physical menu button, so Avast also has an onscreen icon in the upper left-hand corner. This brings up a Settings menu, as well as Avast's Web Shield, App Shield and Message Shield features. We didn't like that the Web Shield, an important feature of most mobile security apps, was tucked away here instead of listed on the home screen. All in all, however, Avast's interface is well organized and delivers a ton of information in an intuitive and manageable way. Detection and performance As you'd expect, Avast's app scans for mobile malware using Virus Scanner. You can check Scan Apps, Scan Storage or both, and tap Scan Now to do a full scan. Automatic Scan schedules daily or weekly scans. The app's most recent build, Avast Mobile Security & Antivirus 3.0, was 98.7 percent accurate in German lab AV-Test's malware-detection test, finding almost all the 2,191 pieces of malware involved in the test. That's better than AV-Test's industry average of 96 percent. But rival security apps from Norton, Kaspersky and McAfee had perfect malware-detection scores, and Lookout Mobile Security scored 99.4 percent. We put Avast to the test ourselves, downloading the well-known EICAR test virus through our phone's Chrome browser. Avast didn't alert us when we tried to download the file, but once we did, Avast's storage scan picked up the test virus right away and flagged it as a problem. When we uninstalled Avast, downloaded EICAR and then reinstalled Avast, it took two scans for the app to notice the file and flag it as malware. To test Avast's impact on a device's performance, we ran a malware scan while running the Geekbench 3 benchmark. Our Samsung Galaxy S4 notched a score of 2,275 before we installed Avast, hitting a higher 2,345 afterward. With the antivirus scan running, the phone's score dropped to 1,719. That's a performance hit, or delta, of 626 points. Lookout's mobile security app saw only a 130-point hit, but Avast's showing was better than Norton's delta of 656, Kaspersky's 774 and McAfee's 1,064-point delta. Anti-theft and data protection In an unusual setup for a security app, Avast Mobile Security & Antivirus' anti-theft and mobile-backup features are separate apps and must be installed separately. After Avast Anti-Theft and Avast Mobile Backup & Restore are set up, both switch to "stealth mode" and are accessible only from the main Avast app. You can also tap Anti-Theft or Backup from Avast Mobile Security's home screen, and the program will walk you through the installation of the auxiliary apps. Advanced Installation Mode lets users install Anti-Theft as a rooted application — a separate process for technically skilled Android users — to gain additional features. Once you install the Anti-Theft app, you'll be asked to register a mobile phone number (a different number from that of the device). You can then activate Avast's anti-theft features from the registered number simply by texting your Avast PIN and a command to the device. Those SMS messages won't be visible from the device's default messaging app. MORE: Best PC Anti-Virus Software 2014 Avast has all the anti-theft features typical of a mobile security app: GPS locating, remote data wipe, remote alarm and remote lock. Avast provides a few more locking options than the competition: You can lock the device's settings menu or lock its program manager access — so a thief can't install any new apps. And you can lock the entire device. The app can surreptitiously take photos, but you'll have to activate that feature in the advanced-settings menu of Avast's anti-theft app. From the Avast website, you can send a command to immediately take a picture using either of the device's cameras, or set the phone to take a picture after a certain number of failed unlock attempts. The app will also take a photo using the front-facing camera if it detects a face within a minute of the device's screen being turned on. You can also set the phone to automatically take a photo if someone tries and fails to unlock the phone. Photos are accessible under the Commands tab in the Web portal. A unique feature called Geofencing tells you if the device leaves a designated area. When you arrive at a location you'll be staying at for a while, activate Geofencing from the app's Anti-Theft menu; if the device moves a given distance away before Geofencing is disabled, the device will be marked as "lost." Most other security apps we tested listed their anti-theft features within the app. We liked that Avast did not, because there's usually no reason to track down a phone from the phone itself. A Web portal or another device is the only logical way to access a device's anti-theft features; by not listing those, Avast streamlined its own app. Avast's Backup feature resembles its Anti-Theft feature in that you first have to install the Avast Mobile Backup & Restore app. The first time you access it, you'll have to agree to another EULA and privacy policy. Then you can choose to give the app permission to access your Google Drive account. MORE: 8 Best Android Backup Apps Avast will store your backed-up contacts, call logs, SMS messages, images, audio files, videos and apps on Avast's own cloud-storage service (accessible from the Web portal), on Google Drive or on both. The app lets you opt to back up data only over Wi-Fi (avoiding mobile-data charges) and also set a file-upload size limit. To back up apps, your phone has to be rooted, but this means apps will retain any data or progress you've made, such as scores in a mobile game. Among the other mobile-security apps we reviewed, only McAfee offered a backup feature comparable to Avast's, although McAfee's can't back up installed apps as Avast's can. Kaspersky Internet Security for Android doesn't contain any backup feature at all. Avast Mobile Security & Antivirus' other data-protection features include Application Locking, which is available from the main menu. It displays a list of apps installed on your device; check the box next to an app, and all users will need to enter the Avast PIN to open that app. We also like the Privacy Advisor feature, which shows what kind of information each app accesses, and also detects which apps run what kinds of ads. Avast scans installed apps and organizes them into categories based on behavior. Under the permissions tab, categories include "track location" and "access contacts." Under the ad-detector tab, categories include "collect location information" and "show in-app banner ads." The Application Management feature, accessible only if the app has administrator rights, lets you force-close currently running apps and see an app's size, memory, permissions and other statistics. Most of this information is also available from Android's standard Active Applications menu. Still, all this data presented in one place gives you a better idea of how your device is functioning. The SMS and Call Filter feature lets users create groups of phone numbers, and can block SMS messages and/or calls from numbers in a given group, or block outgoing calls to a given group. You can set blocks for certain days and times of day, useful if you don't want to get work calls on weekends or receive calls from your family after 11 p.m. Other mobile-security apps have similar blacklisting and whitelisting features, but Avast's was more robust and nuanced than any others we tested. The app's Web Shield feature, accessed from the upper left-hand button on the home screen, protects you from malicious links when using the default Android browser, Google Chrome, Amazon Silk and Boat Browser; support is coming for the Dolphin browser, too. Every other mobile-security app we've reviewed offers Web protection only for the default Android browser and, sometimes, Google Chrome. Other Avast features include Network Meter, which tracks data usage on 3G, Wi-Fi and roaming connections, and a firewall that can only be activated on rooted Android phones. Other security apps we tested lacked such features. Web portal Avast's main website doesn't have an obvious sign-in area; you'll have to go directly to my.avast.com. Once there, you'll find a whole lot of well-organized information about your device. To send the device commands, use the drop-down menu at the top right of the page. Select the command you want and press Send. Premium vs. free The free version of Avast Mobile Security & Antivirus comes with all the malware-detection features, plus the ability to remotely locate, lock and wipe a device, and make it emit an alarm. Other anti-theft features, such as taking photos remotely and Geofencing, are premium-only. You can see app permissions with the free version of Avast, but the ad detector is premium-only. Application Management, SMS and Call Filter, Application Locking, and Network Meter are all free. App, music and video backups are premium-only. Verdict Avast Mobile Security & Antivirus, with its attendant apps, offers a staggering number of features and customization options — so many that it might be overwhelming for new users. But once you get acclimated, Avast offers users unprecedented control over their devices' security, privacy and other internal functions. No other app we've tested has the breadth or depth Avast offers, from its anti-theft features (such as Geofencing or surreptitious photo-snapping) to more specialized features such as call and text blacklists, and its privacy monitor. The only other strike against this app is that it scored lower on the AV-Test than the competition. If you want something simpler, then Lookout or McAfee might be the mobile security app for you. But if you want the full package, we recommend Avast.

Best Android Antivirus Software 2014

If you're not running some kind of anti-malware app on your Android smartphone or tablet, then you're putting yourself at risk of infection from corrupted apps and other kinds of malware. The good news is that your options are far from limited. The best mobile antivirus apps offer not only top-notch malware detection and prevention, but also a range of privacy and anti-theft features, such as the ability to back up your contacts and other data, track your phone or tablet using its internal GPS chip, or even snap a picture of a phone thief with the device's camera. Most mobile security apps have both free and paid versions, but not all freemium antivirus products are created equal. We rounded up apps from the biggest names in mobile antivirus protection — Avast, Kaspersky, Lookout, McAfee and Norton — and rated their apps based on setup, interface, usability, extra features and, of course, their anti-malware chops. To gauge security protection, we used data from AV-Test, which rates most major security apps based on their ability to detect zero-day malware and other recent threats. We also loaded a Galaxy S4 with the EICAR test virus to test each app's anti-malware detection. Last but not least, we used the Geekbench 3 app to measure the impact these security apps have on overall performance.