From a rapidly draining battery to an unexpected crash: These are the signs your phone has a virus – and ways you can protect yourself
- An expert reveals the signs that your phone may be infected with a virus
- Professor Ritesh Chugh said, knowing your phone can be infected
- Queensland Tech Professor Says There Are Signs Of Story To Watch
- Signs include overheating, poor performance, crashing apps, or unusual pop ups
- He recommended ways to keep your phone safe like avoid clicking on weird links
- Also backing up data frequently and updating software to the latest version
If your smartphone battery drains quickly, crashes randomly or uses an unexplained high amount of mobile data, it could be infected with a virus without you knowing it.
While Apple and Android devices are known to be safe from harmful malware, hackers have found secret ways to infect your smartphone and an expert has uncovered clues to protect yourself.
Ritesh Chugh, associate professor in information and communication technology at Central Queensland University, told The Conservation that there was a ‘decent chance’ that you installed malware or spyware on your smartphone at some point, even before you noticed. Didn’t even give.
Hackers have found sneaky ways to infect your smartphone with a virus, so an expert reveals the signs to watch out for and how to protect yourself
A virus which is a type of malware can make its way to our phones by clicking on links in spam texts or email messages from an unknown sender.
It can then send spam messages to your contacts or let hackers ‘spy’ on you by tracking personal information and even your screen and keyboard activity or geographic location.
Mobile Security According to Zimperium, more than a fifth of mobile devices have been infected and globally four out of ten are vulnerable to malware.
Professor Chugh explained that it is not always easy to know whether your phone is infected or not, but there are some signs and unusual behavior to watch out for.
Technology professor Ritesh Chugh said there are some telltale signs and unusual behavior, including poor performance, crashing apps and overheating.
If your device is slow and apps are taking longer than usual to open or if you are getting unusual pop ups, it may have a virus.
Excessive battery drain can also point to harmful malware working in the background as well as unexpectedly heating up of the phone.
Malware can also result in increased mobile data consumption and unexplained billing charges as a result of a virus ‘chewing’ your data.
If you suspect your phone may be infected, Professor Chugh said there are a few things Apple and Android users can do to prevent further damage.
Top six signs your smart phone may be infected with a virus
- Poor performance, such as apps taking longer than usual to open, or randomly crashing
- Excessive battery drain (due to malware constantly running in the background)
- Increase in mobile data consumption
- Unexplained billing charges (which may include inflated data usage charges as a result of malware chewing up your data)
- unusual pop-up
- Device is heating up unexpectedly
Source: Ritesh Chugh/The Conversation
Professor Chugh offered some useful advice for protecting your phone from viruses, including only installing apps from authorized app stores and keeping the software up to date.
First, he recommends using a reliable and reputable anti-virus app to scan for infections like Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, McAfee or Norton.
For Android devices, clears the phone’s storage and cache and for iPhones, clears browsing history and website data.
If you have an Android that blocks any third party apps from operating and finally removes any strange or unfamiliar apps from your Downloads list, check your phone with ‘Safe Mode’ enabled. restart.
As a last effort you can also backup all your data and do a factory reset on your phone, reset it to its original settings and eliminate any malware.
How to protect your smartphone from viruses
- Avoid clicking on unusual pop-ups, or links in unusual text messages, social media posts, or emails
- Only install apps from authorized app stores, such as Google Play or Apple’s App Store
- Avoid jailbreaking or modifying your phone
- Check app permissions before installing, so that you are aware of what the app will access (instead of blindly relying on it)
- Back up your data regularly, and
- Keep your phone software updated to the latest version (which will have the latest security patches).
Source: Ritesh Chugh/The Conversation
Professor Chugh offered some useful advice for protecting your phone from future viruses and security risks, including installing apps only from authorized app stores, backing up data regularly, app permissions before installing software, and keeping up to date. includes checking.
He also said to avoid clicking on unusual pop ups or links in apps, spam text, social media posts or emails, and to avoid modifying or ‘jailbreaking’ your phone.
‘Jailbreaking’ occurs when you download an unauthorized app or software to your device that allows a third party full access to the operating system and all its features.
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