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Is a mobile antivirus a necessity? Responding to the Minister of Digital Affairs' recommendations
Published: 08:55 03/12/2026
Cyberbezpieczeństwo
Is a Mobile Antivirus a Necessity? Responding to the Recommendations
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs, Krzysztof Gawkowski, recently posted on the X platform: "I recommend installing an antivirus program on your phone - it's basic protection in the digital world." This short tweet quickly circulated the web and naturally sparked a decent amount of industry discussion - ranging from polite approval to somewhat indulgent smiles in the broader cybersecurity sector. But how does this actually look from a purely technical perspective? Do we really need additional security software on our smartphones, or is this just an outdated relic of early Windows XP-era thinking?
Architecture: Sandboxing instead of a free-for-all
How do classic antiviruses typically work on PCs? With the explicit consent and knowledge of an admin user, they basically elevate their own privileges to the highest system level (root, SYSTEM) or eagerly install their own drivers deep inside the system's kernel. They do this to primarily scan the entire contents of the computer's RAM looking for operational anomalies, and secondly - check pretty much all files physically located on the hard drive for well-known malware signatures.
An app installed on a mobile phone - whether it's Android or iOS - simply cannot legally do either of these things. Modern mobile tier operating systems are heavily based on the sandboxing mechanism. Almost every app is locked inside its own isolated "sandbox", from which it definitely cannot freely peek out. It basically only has access to its strict, allocated RAM area, and it can read its own particular files and a tiny fraction of "shared" resources (like camera photos), but only provided the user explicitly grants it permission to do so. An antivirus app is therefore inherently treated by the OS exactly the same as a calculator, a notepad, or a colorful mobile game - it absolutely doesn't have any special privileges on startup allowing it to do any deep scanning of other active processes in the background.
Tightening the belt: How Android slowly took away freedom
It's historically worth adding that Android - which in its early ecosystem versions gave users and developers a really large, sometimes downright dangerous amount of initial freedom - systematically takes away those earlier liberties piece by piece in almost every subsequent edition.
First on the chopping block were programs actively running quietly in the background. This was a massive source of huge battery drain issues, so Google strongly curtailed this shady practice. Then, unrestricted file access on memory cards was subjected to progressively greater systemic restrictions (which naturally somewhat reduces the risk of massive user data theft by mobile ransomware). Soon, mobile apps won't even be allowed to freely check what else the end-user has installed on their particular device - and let's quickly remember that tracking the list of installed apps is a truly perfect source of personal data for intrusive advertising profiling.
The scanning illusion: What are we actually buying bundled with a mobile "antivirus"?
Since proper system scanning is technically impossible from the get-go, what do all these apps with an encouraging shield icon actually do all day? Most commercial "antivirus" programs in modern app stores actually offer you a pretty random collection of secondary utilities. You'll typically find simple backup services, basic VPN networks, stolen device localization features (anti-theft), app locking functionalities for specific messaging applications (using a PIN), or the massive removal of unnecessary temporary files (just basic cache cleaning).
All this can honestly be somewhat useful from time to time, but it clearly doesn't have much to do with actual virus detection loops. What's worse, you're often thrown features of totally questionable usefulness into your paid subscription package - like "magically" extending your phone's battery life (usually implemented by crudely killing essential background processes), "scanning public Wi-Fi networks for serious threats" (whatever that might practically even mean in real life), or completely vague promises of "identifying apps that extort heavy money".
The real threats hide elsewhere
Fundamentally speaking - modern financial attacks on smartphone users rarely actually rely on quietly uploading sophisticated technical viruses that successfully break operating system securities. Instead, social engineering attacks absolutely dominate the market right now: spear-phishing, malware distributed in SMS links, smishing (SMS scams like fake package delivery surcharges), or scammers directly impersonating employees of a chosen bank. Let's understand this very clearly: if you yourself tragically believe that an employee from the safety helpline is actually calling you, and you willingly, without coercion give them your secure BLIK code or authorize an instant transfer - absolutely no antivirus installed on your phone, not even the most expensive enterprise one in the world, will unfortunately save your wallet from being drained. The main underlying problem here is, sadly, the human factor.
So who does an antivirus scanner on a phone actually make sense for?
It seems that specific modules pretending to be APK file scanners can be genuinely useful mainly for those advanced power users who routinely and proactively choose to download apps from completely untrusted, external internet sources (the so-called sideloading phenomenon, completely bypassing the official Google store). That's pretty much slowly becoming the only unique situation where a mobile application from any given security provider can actually scan the executable malicious code of an intruder directly from the installation file, right before it is formally deployed into your device's memory. Web filtering modules (Web Protection) that actively try to block known phishing domains and websites with a broadly malicious reputation directly at the DNS/browser level can also be somewhat helpful and desirable - although we strictly admit that this is a core feature that modern browsers themselves have had tightly built-in for a long time anyway.
Native protection - Google Play Protect is perfectly sufficient
For basically all other standard smartphone users, we confidently recommend leaving the built-in securities of most operating systems fully enabled. Google Play Protect is honestly a great example of a robust mechanism deeply integrated with the Play Store and partially into Google's operating system itself. What's more, this specific manufacturer essentially possesses real administrative privileges to check individual technical processes that creators of third-party antivirus software would frankly only ever dream of. The service preventively scans millions of apps published in the cloud every day and can actively, deliberately remove those from a reckless user's device that have been centrally identified as a severe information security threat for the Android ecosystem.
Content summary
The Minister of Digital Affairs' official recommendation, although probably dictated by highly sincere intentions to fight growing misinformation and malicious codes while following new tech trends, actually appears functionally quite pale compared to real, commercial cybersecurity analyses. Instead of hastily buying an additional security "Swiss army knife" completely in the dark, excessively burdening our phone memory and possessing pretty illusory causative power against deep background software - it is definitely way better to simply try implementing what is still completely free and provides immense life stability, by naturally investing in the education of oneself and loved ones through spreading healthy, vigilant common sense while navigating today's trap-filled, daily digital life.
About the Author
Aleksander Zębrowski
Chief Technology Officer at SecurHub.pl
PhD candidate in neuroscience. Psychologist and IT expert specializing in cybersecurity.
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