Stiftung Warentest gives free app the best grade
Protection against malware and phishing: Stiftung Warentest tested 11 Android apps and one pre-installed function. The results are impressive – but only one app gets the overall grade “very good” and is also free.
Security apps for Android: All protect, but only one is ‘very good’ overall
Among the security apps tested, Stiftung Warentest (Edition 07/2023) identified a clear winner: the app Sophos Intercept X for Mobile (Version 9.7) was the only one to receive the overall grade “very good” (1.5).
Other providers from the test field such as G Date, Avast, Bitdefender, McAfee and Avire have to place themselves behind them. However, they all received overall grades from the range “good”, and fortunately there was not one disappointment. At the crucial one “Protective” category there were even several “very good”. For example, “G Data Mobile Security” and “Trend Micro Mobile Security” are just as good in this discipline as the test winner from Sophos. However, the two apps are chargeable, while “Sophos Intercept X for Mobile” for free is.
Google Play Protect and Chrome disappoint
The Android system function “Google Play Protect” and the Chrome browser were also scrutinized. However, the Stiftung Warentest only awarded the overall grade “sufficient” (4.3). The combination of Play Protect and Chrome “didn’t convince” and ended up in last place by a wide margin. So if you want to protect your smartphone or tablet from malware and phishing attacks as much as possible, you should take a look at one of the security apps. Good to know: The additional load reduced the battery life in the tests only by “a few minutes”.
In the Data protection it looks bleak With the exception of “F Secure Mobile Security”, all participants (including the test winner from Sophos) had to put up with the classification “clear defects”. This means, for example, that texts on data protection are long and incomprehensible, and users are not sufficiently informed about their rights. So there is still a lot of catching up to do here.
We can only agree with the two concluding tips from Stiftung Warentest, because they are simply part of the basic rules for Android: First, apps should only be obtained from (largely) trustworthy sources such as the Google Play Store. Second, you should always enable two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect accounts.
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