The main danger of viruses in a smartphone is the interception of SMS messages. Just imagine what will happen if a virus gets access to sending and reading SMS messages. If you have a mobile bank connected, you can theoretically lose all your money.
Moreover, viruses are so smart that they immediately delete sent and received SMS. Therefore, I do not recommend using the SMS bank: it is better to disable it and switch completely to the banking program, which has its own protection and it is practically impossible for a virus to get into the application.
And now the signs themselves. For the completeness of the picture, it is advisable to reboot (turn off and on) the smartphone. It is worth understanding that the signs are indirect, they do not show 100% whether there is a virus or not, since modern viruses are able to disguise themselves well in the system.
Signs:
– The smartphone slows abnormally. Especially when talking or sending SMS/messages via messengers;
– Applications that you did not install appear in your smartphone;
— You started receiving inflated bills for paying for cellular communication. It is possible that the virus software connected you to various paid services or debits the balance via short SMS;
— You see messages that you did not send in the sent SMS. This also applies to messengers;
— A large number of advertisements began to appear: in applications, in the browser. In addition, advertising is clearly aggressive and unusual;
— The battery of the smartphone suddenly began to drain quickly, although previously the charge lasted for a long time;
— The device heats up even if you do not run any powerful programs (videos or games);
– High consumption of mobile traffic;
– Programs began to fail;
— Some of your accounts were hacked, with the condition that you only accessed it from a smartphone.
The above mentioned signs are signs that something is wrong with the smartphone. Next, I recommend installing anti-virus software (preferably paid, Dr. Web or Kaspersky (there is a trial period)) and scanning the device with it.
In general, Android is arranged in such a way that if you put too many programs on it, it is simply impossible to understand whether they have a virus. Sometimes the antivirus cannot find viruses because it has not yet studied them and virus samples have not been delivered to the laboratory of antivirus organizations.
What shall I do?
If you notice that the behavior of the device has become abnormal, then immediately remember what you installed. Uninstall these programs or try reinstalling them.
The best solution – perform a reset to factory settings (hard reset of the device). It is done in the settings. It is worth understanding that a hard reset will erase all data and applications, so it is better to save them to the cloud account or anywhere.
The smartphone will be as you bought it. With the same version of the OS and with the same set of programs. All problems will go away with the reset, including those not related to a potential infection.
It is worth understanding that the risk of catching a virus from the Play Market is minimal – only if you download some unpopular application at all.
Basically, the Play Market moderates the applications and also checks the application at the time of download and installation for the presence of malicious code.
Most often, malicious programs are installed by the user himself if he downloads and runs .apk files or “roots” (receives super rights) his smartphone. In addition, the operating system also affects: the fresher it is, the lower the risk of infection.
