Android Security: 20 Good Apps

With the rise of mobile computing, handheld devices are a lucrative new area for hackers. Protect your Android phone with these apps.

Thanks to the fact that the Android operating system allows for broader multitasking than that other popular smartphone OS, Android devices are able to support a wide range of mobile security functionality that runs in the background on an ongoing basis, such as automated backups and virus scanning.

Still, it’s worth keeping in mind that the most essential security precautions for your Android device, like password-protecting the device itself and setting it to auto-lock after a specified period of time, don’t require an app – both of those features can be accessed within Settings -> Location & Security.

And with the arrival of Android 2.2, Android devices now offer several unlock options, including a numeric PIN, a password or a graphical pattern (the last of which was recently found to be easily compromised, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania).

If you want to take your device’s password protection one step further, apps like App Protector Pro ($1.99), Carrot App Lock Pro ($1.50), Seal (€2.19) and Android Protector (free) also allow you to password-protect applications on an individual basis.

And with an ever-growing number of apps available in the Android Market, what follows below certainly isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s intended to give you a good sense of some of the options available when seeking further protection for your Android smartphone – and for the data that resides on it.

Read the rest at eSecurity Planet.