SMobile argues that because Android is open source, it will attract more hackers who will be able to look for holes they can exploit to gather user data for malicious purposes.

While companies including McAfee, Symantec and F-Secure make smartphone antivirus software, although not yet for Android, only a few mobile viruses have appeared, and those haven't spread very far. That's partly because of the wide variety of operating systems that run mobile phones. A virus written for one operating system doesn't spread widely because it won't work on phones running different operating systems.

In addition, people generally don't use their phones to access or send the same kind of important data that they do on their PCs, making phones less-interesting targets for people looking to steal that information. Mobile commerce, for example, is a very small market, so few people enter their credit card numbers into their phones.

Miller said that if people are worried about security on their phones, software from providers like SMobile might let them rest easier, although he probably wouldn't bother to buy such software for himself.

While Google or mobile service providers are sure to patch holes or issue fixes to known problems, SMobile could potentially do so faster. Miller says he notified Google of the vulnerability he discovered on Oct. 20. Google and T-Mobile began sending out a patch on Oct. 31.