Many people who are militant about security on the computers don’t think much about security when surfing the net or checking email on their smartphone. A new company called DroidSecurity is offering software for Android devices that will protect users while they are online.

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SMobile Systems have today launched the first Antivirus software application for the Android platform.

The software, called VirusGuard, will help to protect the Android powered devices from viruses, spyware, and malware. VirusGuard will have the ability to scan the handset along with memory cards searching for any malicious content.

“Android’s open source architecture is fantastic because it allows anyone to develop new applications for the phones running on this system,” SMobile president Neil Book said in a statement. “For SMobile, we believe that creating a virus protection solution is necessary to help thwart the potential for malware attacks that are coming and those that exist today.”

As you might have expected VirusGuard is not a free application and therefore won’t be available from the Android Market until 2009. The software can be purchased from SMobile’s Web site or through Handango priced at $4.99.

Google is asking the security community to make sure its Android operating system remains safe. In a post on Full Disclosure, the Android Security Team writes: “As you may expect, building and maintaining a secure mobile platform is a difficult task… While we have found and fixed many of our own bugs as well as flaws in other open source projects, we realize that the discovery of additional security issues in a system this large and complex is inevitable. That is why we would like to introduce ourselves today and let the security research community know how they can reach out and work with us.”

This seems like a good move, as it’s likely to create goodwill in the security community, and it’s probably better than keeping Android behind closed doors. Security experts are asked to check the free Android SDK, the emulator and the security FAQ. There’s also an email address (security @ android.com) for tips and suggestions.