Even as mobile users in India are going online with their smartphones for various purposes such as banking, social networking, browsing sites and more, there are some risks that tag along. While it may be hard to detect the security threat users face on a daily basis, Avast is bringing a feasible solution to keep mobile users safe from all possible threats.
During a brief press conference on Thursday, Avast CEO Vincent Steckler explained the risks smartphone users face. The PC and mobile security firm backed up its claims by sharing some experimental results it conducted to prove that smartphone users are at the risk of losing their phones, losing data stored on their phones, data being accessed without their permission and malicious software trying to steal sensitive details.
The company claims to be to have the "only security app that survives the factory reset."
Avast conducted an experiment where it lost and tracked 20 phones in the US using its anti-theft software. The results would be rather infuriating if it was an actual user who lost the phone. Over the course of five months, Avast found that:
- The majority of lost devices were wiped clean using the factory reset feature.
- One device appears to have travelled via a transatlantic cargo ship before settling in India where the phone is currently being used.
- One device flew to the Dominican Republic.
- One device landed in a pawn shop.
- One device appears to be with a taxi driver zigzagging the streets of San Francisco.
The new anti-theft software by Avast claims to offer maximum protection to smartphone owners. If a smartphone is lost with Avast anti-theft in it, there is a higher chance of finding the device even if it has been factory reset. The key features of Avast Anti-Theft are:
- Remotely locating lost devices using GPS, Wi-Fi or mobile network.
- Remotely locking your device to avoid risking your personal data falling into wrong hands.
- SIM card change notification.
- Remotely activate a loud siren even if the phone is kept in silent mode.
- Wipe all data remotely, including call logs, email accounts and images.
- Remotely listen to the phone's surroundings by activating a stealth call.
- Rename Avast with a less-threatening name such as any game.
- Hide Avast app from the app tray.
- Add list of SIM cards that can be used in the phone without activating theft alert.
- Preserves battery by running only while performing tasks.
- Supports rooted phones with a setup wizard.
- Remotely restart the phone by SMS command to lock and ask for a SIM card PIN to unlock.
- Send low battery notification to a secondary phone.
- Change Anti-Theft settings remotely.
- Send a custom message to the lost device's screen.
- Remotely lock phone's app manager and settings to prevent any changes.
Avast Anti-Theft is a free software available for Android smartphones. You can download the security app from Google Play Store and enjoy all the features without paying anything extra. Most of these features are part of premium software in other security apps.
