With massive growth over the last couple of years, it seems that everyone and their dog has an Android device, whether it's an ultra-cheap tablet with limited processor power and functionality or a top-of-the-range Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone.
Unfortunately, it's just this kind of popularity which attracts the makers of malicious software. Previous predictions of smartphone threats, for operating systems such as Symbian, proved to be empty-handed; but Android users have been plagued by a range of malicious apps already. These range from dialers that send premium-rate text messages without your knowledge, to spyware designed to steal your passwords when you use your phone for internet banking.
Last week, we went to speak to the makers of the popular Avast! anti-virus software, which is available in free versions for a variety of formats, including Android. During our trip, we managed to lose an Android phone, which emphasised to us just how easy it is to be parted from a sizeable chunk of personal data.
Fortunately, there are a range of products - including but not limited to Avast's - designed to help you track down your phone even after it's already flown the coop. Unfortunately, while this real-world experience proved to be a help in writing this piece, our phone has yet to rematerialise.
Here are our top seven features for protecting your phone against the worst the world can throw at it.
1. Install anti-theft tools
There are plenty of anti-theft tools for Android, whether you want to be able to remotely delete your data, track down your lost phone or even take a photo of the perpetrator. It's worth noting that you may have to ignore the usually sound advice about not allowing your phone to install non-market apps to make some anti-theft tools work properly.
Avast Anti-Theft for Android
This includes the free Avast anti-theft and anti-virus app, which can also has extra features that only work if your phone has been 'rooted' to give you access to superuser commands, including a deep-level installation that means your anti-theft protection will remain functional even if the thief attempts to factory reset the device. Whether you do that or not, it lets you disguise the tracking app with a name of your choice and - if you phone is lost or stolen - lets you instruct it to contact you, report its location, wipe the contents of your phone, take control of the cameras and more besides. It's essentially rather sophisticated spyware installed for your own protection.
2. Install tracking tools after the event
If your phone's already gone missing, though, you'll need something much simpler and which doesn't require extensive configuration. We like Plan B, which you can remotely install from via the Google Play store and which will email you as soon as it detects that your missing phone is switched on and within range of a cellular tower.
3. Install Anti-Virus
Avast Anti-Virus for Android
There are a number of anti-virus tools for Android at the moment - Avast, AVG, Lookout and Norton are all available for free and provide a range of features to protect your phone. According to Avast's Miloš Korenko, only 30% of Android users have security software installed. He also explained the prevalence of free anti-virus apps, noting that "there's close to no money in Android [security applications]", making Avast's presence on the market (as well as that of its rivals) largely a gesture in goodwill-making PR for the company's paid-for desktop products. Paid-for Android security products are available, but they're mostly aimed at corporate users and even then most of their features are available in free equivalents.
4. Backups
While we were mildly peeved by losing access to mobile email, text, internet and GPS mapping services for a few days, we're actually much more distressed by the loss of the photos we've not yet got round to uploading anywhere.
A mobile backup service can be critical when it comes to retaining such data. Some online backup services, including SOS Online Backup support Android backups. The free version gives you 5GB of free storage and makes it easy to back up your photos, videos, audio files and more whenever you're connected to the internet via Wi-Fi.
5. Take advantage of Google's services
Google provides a massive range of services, all of which link together and most of which safely store your data in Google's cloud. This means you can use Google+ for Android to automatically upload every photo you take to a private G+ gallery (so even the embarrassing ones are kept safe from prying eyes until you choose to go public with them), Google Drive to upload any file from your phone to the net and sync it with other devices on which you've installed Drive and use Gmail to sync and save your phone contacts online. Thanks to a combination of these features, we were able to quickly and easily retrieve the most critical data from our lost Android device.
6. Insure and go?
Phones are expensive to replace, particularly if yours is lost, stolen or simply broken shortly after you received it as part of a subscription to a mobile service provider. To avoid having to spend the last 18 months of your contract using a feature phone, it's important to make sure that you mention your phone on any relevant insurance policies, including home and travel insurance.These will often provide you with sufficient cover even if you don't take out specialist phone insurance, although it's commonly advised to only make major claims on your home insurance, as the frequency of claims have greater impact on your premiums than the value of the item which has to be replaced. Make sure your excess is also low enough to justify any claim you make - with some as high as £250, you may be better off just buying a second hand smartphone to see you through until your contract renewal.
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