[Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EggplantWizard:
Greetings everyone.

Ill just start off with asking the question: How many of you give 2nd, 3rd or nth thoughts about using a rooted (or, rooted and ROM'd) phone?

Now, let me explain why I am asking this question.

Earlier this week, my Google account was broken into. The attacker mass-emailed everyone on my contact list a link to a Viagra ad, of all things. It could have been worse, since my contacts and emails were left in-tact. In a furious, chaotic, post-incident rush, I was scrambling in an attempt to figure out how they obtained my password. At the time of this writing, I have come up with nothing. The first thing I thought, naturally, was a worm/trojan/virus on my PC. Several anti-virus / anti-malware / anti-root-kit scans proved to be clean.

So, I turned my sleuthing efforts towards my phone -- a Samsung Captivate, which had been rooted and ROM'd to Captivate 3.04. I had Lookout installed the entire time, and I have been using Cognition ROMs since late December of 2010. In assuming the worst, I nuked my phone, reverted back to stock and re-rooted and re-ROM'd. While rooting my phone, my virus scanner pleasantly informed me that the One Click rooting solution contained an exploit (Lotoor, I believe). Now, I completely understand that its necessary to use these exploits in order to gain access. However, it kinda got me thinking -- what else could be going into the phone that I dont know about?

Note that all ROMs and Rooters were obtained from links available from this website. I did not get them from "shady" locations.

I am realistic about this. I download and install applications from the internet frequently. I put a some faith in my virus scanners / anti-malware applications. This little incident, however, is making me a little more skeptical about what applications I run, as its difficult and time consuming to monitor every application for "phone home" activities.

The bottom line is that I do not want to sound like that I am placing blame on any of the Cognition developers (or any ROM developer). In fact, I am probably going to donate to them because the 3.04 version finally allowed me to use my GPS normally. I honestly feel like I have a smart phone now, as everything works as it should and the phone is alot snappier compared to the stock version. I am saying this even after I tried out the official Samsung Kies Froyo update, which still leaves me hanging for GPS service.

And yes, I completely understand that I could have very well downloaded something on the Android market that was infected. Even though I did not download any of the applications mentioned on the latest hotlist (really, I just dont care about "screaming sexy Japanese girls"), I could have obtained an undiscovered beast. It could also be the case that I have something on my PC that scanners just arent picking up. I may never know.

Where do you all stand on this issue? Do most ROM creators have more than one set of eyes looking at the packages that get deployed, or is that too unpractical?

Thanks in advance!

(P.S. I have searched the forum and looked at the suggested links before posting. I just didnt find anything that quenched my thirst)