As the number of persons browsing from their phone and mobile devices is increasing so are the number of hackers and malicious persons targeting mobile users.
Feature phones hardly get infected ‘cos most of their core programs including the OS (Operating System) is read only. This is never the case with smartphones, mostly rooted android phones and jail-broken iOS powered devices.
The security of your files, documents, passwords and overall privacy should of necessity be a concern to you as a smartphone user. This is why I will be taking you through the measures needed to secure them and also to prevent them from being damaged by virus, malware, trojan horses and worms.
How not to get infected – Preventive Measures
Before we dig down into details on how to quickly recover your phone from virus attacks, can we quickly take a look at measures needed to secure your devices from possible virus attacks?
a. Always Synchronize Your Phone Data with specialized Software
This is necessary because new mobile phone specific malware get’s distributed almost every six hours and most of them can easily bypass your mobile anti-virus solution, hence stealing your data or at most your banking details.
Synching your phone to your personal computer makes it easy to do a hard reset when infected without bordering much about loosing your data(s).
There are many popular software to synch your phone and pc, It all depends on the brand and OS. For most android phones, moborobo software suit will do, iTunes for iOS powered smartphone and devices, ovi suit for nokia s40 and Symbian Os(s60) Powered devices and zune for most windows OS pocket devices.
b. Embrace free cloud backup services
You don’t want to loose your data(s) after malware attacks assuming that you don’t already own a personal computer, there are many free backup services, the most popular ones being dropbox and 4shared.
Backing up your phone data(s) periodically to this services ensures that there isn’t much to worry about during phone hard reset, assuming you ‘ve already noticed there is an infection.
c. Always use Mobile specific internet security on your devices
In order to prevent this malicious individuals from infecting your phone and devices, you need install antivirus and internet security solution on this devices, this ensures that the virus are prevented from attacking your phone or damaging your data(s).
d. Update Operating System(OS) and Core Programs always
Once any vulnerability or security flaw is noticed on this smartphones, the phone vendors will normally push updates to correct them. This makes it mandatory for you to update your OS and core programs once an update is available.
What if there is a virus attack already? 5 things to be done
When the above mentioned preventive measures aren’t taken seriously, there ‘s bound to be an attack. Here is five important things to be done once a virus infection is suspected to be in action.
1. Do a full device backup
Most virus attacks might need you to perform a phone full reset in order to regain the stability, some attacks are intended for stealing your private details, contacts, photos or at most your mobile banking details.
This is why you should backup your entire documents and files once you sense the presence of a virus, this should be done quickly even before scanning the device with an internet security.
2. Remove the external storage media
Most viruses get’s transferred to our phone during file transfer, eg. when you connect the sdcard to a computer using a card reader or the adapter. In this case, you need remove the external storage devices before performing the preceding steps.
3. Perform a full device Virus scan
Most virus attacks can be easily corrected by scanning the phone with a good internet security, one of the most effective mobile internet security solution is the one from Kaspersky Labs.
4. Perform a Vulnerability Scan
Most malicious persons can send virus in form of adware (malicious apps), doing a vulnerability scan ensures that games and apps with high security risk are detected and replaced with better alternatives. Backdoor(s) in the phone or settings that might result into a security risk are also detected during vulnerability scan.
5. Do a Device Update and return the External Storage
Assuming that you have already achieved stability after performing the actions above, you need to still update your device OS and core apps with their most compatible, stable versions. This ensures that all possible loopholes are blocked completely.
You can also scan your external storage with a computer that have internet security in them before returning it to your phone. Also note that some faulty memory cards (sdcards) can cause your phone instabilities like; hanging, freezing or even restarting frequently, in this case, replacing the sdcard will be a better option.
Also note that a full hard reset of the phone will be your final resolution if the other options fails, assuming that you have already done the full backup, all you need do is –> hard reset –> restore backups –> perform a full scan and update.
Over to you
What have you learned about securing your phone from virus attacks and how to correct infected ones? Drop your comments below, do not forget to share this with your friends.
Image credit: flickr
