How to know if your phone has a virus?

phone-virus

The mobile phone is an essential tool in people’s daily lives, a device in which a large amount of information is stored, be it private conversations, photos, videos or documents. Because of this, in recent years hackers have extended cyber attacks to mobile phones to steal valuable confidential data.

The importance of protecting mobile phones from cyberattacks

The enormous growth of cyber attacks in Spain represents a warning sign for people and companies to take the necessary safeguards to protect their different technological devices from this kind of threat.

In particular, the mobile phone is being targeted by massive cyberattacks as a result of the growth in the number of hacking tools.

In this way, hackers seek to steal the enormous amount of data stored on cell phones (passwords, personal and bank details, photos, among others), taking advantage of the massive use that people make of these devices to connect to the Internet.

Signs that your mobile phone has a virus

There are various signs on a mobile device that may indicate the presence of a virus or malware, among which are:

  • Slowdown of phone operation.
  • The different applications tend to crash or close unexpectedly.
  • Presence of pop-up windows (known as “pop-ups”) that invite the user to perform certain actions.
  • Battery life is much shorter than normal or gets hot more often.
  • Cellular data is consumed too quickly even though the way you use the phone hasn’t changed.
  • Likewise, anomalous situations may arise such as the unexpected reboot of the cell phone, failure to download applications or making involuntary calls and messages.

Tips to prevent a mobile phone from being infected

Next, we share the main recommendations to prevent a mobile phone from being infected by a cyber attack:

1. Keep your device up to date

Updates are essential to reduce the risk of a cyberattack, since they incorporate new tools and functionalities to combat possible threats and vulnerabilities. For this reason, it is recommended that your mobile phone always have the latest available update of its operating system installed.

2. Have backups

This action is of great importance to reduce the impact that the theft of information from a mobile device can generate. Thus, it is necessary to constantly make backup copies or have an automatic system that backs up the information in any emergency situation.

3. Beware of emails

Practices such as phishing (a technique that seeks to deceive the user in order to steal their data by making them believe that an email comes from a secure site such as a bank or prestigious institution) have grown strongly in recent years. It is extremely important to be careful when opening any link or attachment in an email that seems suspicious.

4. Antivirus for mobile

A direct solution to avoid infection of a mobile device is to install a mobile antivirus that is constantly monitoring its security. In this sense, there are several highly efficient and recommended free options such as Google Play Protect (Android’s default antivirus), Avast, Kaspersky, Avira and McAfee.

5. Avoid using public networks

Although free access to the Internet is very tempting, public networks can be very dangerous by exposing a large amount of data and information. Consequently, it is much more convenient and secure to use a VPN (virtual private network) that guarantees that there is no log of usage activity or connections.

6. Efficiency in the use of passwords

There are dozens of online accounts that request an access password (banking, work, social networks, applications, among others), therefore, to avoid the massive theft of information from each of these platforms, it is important to use different passwords that are difficult to decipher.

7. Efficient application management

To avoid the presence of viruses or malware, it is necessary to ensure that you download applications only from official stores, taking special care to verify the legality of each website where a download is made. In the same way, it is advisable to read the terms and conditions of the apps that you want to install and eliminate those that are no longer used for cleaning.

These are some of the most important tips to protect a cell phone from threats such as viruses, malware or phishing. In this way, you can keep relevant data and information safe, whether personal or from the company where you work.