We use smartphones to communicate, work, enjoy entertainment, play games, do shopping, and much more. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that our smartphones are our go-to gadgets meant to fulfill all our vital needs. That being said, storing your data on your smartphone is perfectly fine, but it’s best to be aware of the potential threats lurking around.
I’m referring to smartphone viruses that may steal important data stored on your device. In this article, I discuss some major viruses, how they affect your smartphone, and what measures you can take to protect your smartphone from those viruses. Let’s start:
Major Types of Viruses
While I believe that security protocols on our smartphones have improved a lot, the data stored on them is still not safe. It’s because viruses have also become sophisticated and bad actors have found new ways to attack our smartphones.
Now, let’s discover some major types of viruses:
Malware
Malware is one of the most dangerous and common viruses that steal or take control of our data. The worst thing about malware is users may not even detect if it’s present in their smartphones.
Adware
Adware is a type of virus that enters our smartphones via ads. As soon as we click on ads, this opens up a gateway for the malicious element into our smartphones and extract vital information. Plus, users may not be able to identify the malicious ads on the internet.
Ransomware
Unlike other types of viruses, users generally know when a ransomware attacks their smartphones.
In ransomware, the bad actors hack data or smartphones and make it inaccessible till you pay them a ransom. They may blackmail users with the stolen data and even after paying them a ransom, there is no surety they would delete or blackmail the users again with the stolen data.
Spyware
Spyware tracks users’ browsing history and steals vital information. It may sell the retrieved information to third-party advertisers and affect your smartphone’s performance.
Trojan
A trojan is quite difficult to find as it can be hidden in any application on your smartphone. Besides stealing your data, a trojan can gradually affect your phone’s performance.
Now, let’s see how viruses make their way into our smartphones:
How Viruses Enter Smartphones
That can happen when users may have unknowingly provided access to viruses to their smartphones. However, the following ways will help us understand how viruses make their way to our smartphones:
- Sometimes, we receive emails and SMS from unknown senders and they may contain attachments or links. And as soon as we click on them, a virus may enter our smartphone.
- Some ads seem too good to be true and urge us to explore them. However, these ads may contain adware, and as I’ve mentioned above, clicking on those ads may provide a passage for viruses to enter your smartphone.
- Some apps are not available on Apple Store or Google Play Store and people may download them from unverified sources or install their APK files. It’s a possibility that viruses may enter through those apps and APK files.
- Torrent files are not secure as peer-to-peer downloading may reveal your device’s IP address. And if your IP address is revealed to bad actors, they may install malware or other viruses on your device.
- Using unencrypted internet connections, for example, public hotspots in cafes or parks can be harmful to your smartphone. The data you send/receive on these connections may not be safe as there is no encryption on these connections. And, these connections may also download malicious content on your smartphones without any warning.
Bonus Section: How to Protect Your Smartphone from Getting Viruses:
Now that you know the major types of viruses and how they enter smartphones, it’s time to know what measures can help us protect our devices from these viruses.
- Use a Secure Internet Connection
In most cases, viruses enter our smartphones via the internet. So, using a secure internet connection on smartphones becomes important to protect them from viruses.
On that account, it’s best to use a reliable connection, for instance, Xfinity that offers an xFi Advanced Security. This feature may help prevent you from visiting any malicious sites and monitor your network security to ensure your device’s safety. Also, as soon as it detects a threat, it may warn you instantly. You can reach out to Xfinity customer support to learn how else the xFi Advanced Security feature may help in maximizing your device’s security.
- Do not Open Unverified Links
In most cases, emails or links you receive via SMS from unverified sources contain malware. However, you may also receive malware from known senders. There’s a chance that a bad actor may hack the sender’s device and send malicious content to their entire contact list.
So, if you are not expecting to receive emails or links from the sender, do not open them until you verify them from the concerned person. If it’s confirmed that they have not sent the email or link, then it’s best to delete the content as soon as possible.
- Use Ad Blockers
Ad blockers are the perfect tool to hide or remove ads you encounter online. Ad blockers restrict the website’s access to ad servers and do not let them load at all. So, this way, ads are either hidden or disabled and a user does not see them. Resultantly, the adware that may be hidden inside those ads is removed and does not enter your smartphone.
- Use Anti-Virus Tools
Using premium anti-virus tools can help you detect and remove viruses hiding and stealing your smartphone’s data. Plus, some quality anti-virus tools may also inform and block malicious content that may try to enter your smartphone.
- Clear Your Browser’s Cache
The web browser on your smartphone has a cache memory and a virus can hide inside it. It’s possible that you visit a website and a virus from that website gets stored on the cache memory.
Resultantly, it may follow you on every website or web page you visit and steal information. So, it’s best to delete cache memory from time to time to ensure that no malware or virus hiding inside it.
