Android Smartphone Malware: How To Tell If Yours Has It And How To Avoid It
By: Jim Stickley and Tina Davis
March 11, 2021
Those ugly little viruses that love to live in Android devices are a problem and many users may suspect they have malware, but aren’t aware of how to tell or what to do about it. Different malware types bring their own symptoms, making it difficult to figure out what type the malware is, much less how to go about removing it. A study in by Malwarebytes found nearly 200,000 circumstances of malware on devices it tested in May and again in June of this year. Experts maintain that smartphone malware can be eliminated, and better yet, be avoided to begin with.
Unrelenting ad pop-ups and a slow running device are two types of malware symptoms that can make you want to toss your smartphone off the nearest cliff, but don’t! Security experts find the most common are adware apps like Ads Blocker, a malware app that does the opposite of what it claims to do. Ads Blocker multiplies the amount of pop-up ads on a device, and every time an ad is clicked someone is making money from it. So, if your device is deluged with ads, and even more so after installing Ads Blocker, you may be in the thick of it.
The second most common malware exploits weakness in smartphones, looking to gain access to PII (personally identifiable information) and other data by giving itself the permission to do so. Once the malware gives itself access to data, user permissions are no longer needed, and users are totally unaware data is being stolen. That data theft also includes putting your contacts in a risky spot, too. Your contacts are now set up for malware infections that include email spear phishing and other socially engineered attacks. Other data up for grabs on an Android device includes financial information, phone numbers and pretty much any other PII currently on the device.
Smartphone Malware Symptoms
- Your battery is losing juice rapidly
- You download an app and the icon immediately vanishes
- Constant, unrelenting ad pop-ups no matter what app you’re using
- Apps you didn’t download appear on your device
Smartphone Malware Prevention
- Keep a device and apps updated with the latest software versions. They can fix security weaknesses and remove the way the malware entered to begin with. They can also prevent malware from working overall.
- Delete apps you are no longer using and consider investigating and removing an app you suspect may be malware.
- Investigate anti-virus software. It can find and alert you to malware on a device, but shop around before doing so. Different anti-virus solutions have varying security options, and cost can differ.
- Only download apps from the official app stores since they routinely scan for infected apps. Getting apps from other sources, called sideloading, is a very risky prospect. Hackers love to load these third-party sites with malware apps, knowing the website does not scan for viruses before making them available.
Remember that malicious actors are sneaky and can make a fake app appear to be legitimate, even if it means just adding a letter to the name or copying a logo. Take the time to check them out, including reading reviews, before downloading anything to your devices.