Can Cell Phones get Viruses and Malware? Special Hints

Last Updated on 3 months by Touhid

Can cell phones get viruses and malware? Yes, a cell phone gets viruses and malware. It causes potential harm to cell phone storage, crashes apps, and can install unwanted apps.

Today, in this post we will discuss cell phone viruses and how to protect them to ensure cell phone security.

So, keep reading the topics to learn more.

What are Cell Phone Viruses?

A cell phone virus is a software program that can be installed on a cell phone without users’ acknowledgment. Virus and malware are the most important concern for anyone who is using a cell phone or computer.

Your smartphone can get viruses and malware in different ways. The most common way is whenever you download a third-party app, suspicious documents, and click on malicious email links. Even your phone can be infected by a virus by visiting a malicious website.

The symptoms you should know that your cell phone has a virus or malware.

• Increased Storage Memory of Phone.
• Phone Apps are crashing.
• Displays pop-up ads.
• Unwanted Apps installed on the phone.
• Unexplained Phone calls and Messages.
• Poor Performance on Your Phone.
• Battery Runs Down.

Read More about How Do I Know If My Phone Has A Virus?

Can Cell Phones Get Viruses and Malware?

We use smartphones for different purposes such as communication, online shopping, internet search, and web browsing. Smartphones are helping to increase our productivity and make our lives very easy.

Now the question is: Can cell phones get Viruses and malware? The simple answer is yes, cell phones get viruses and malware. Viruses and malware can infect a cell phone in the same way as a computer.

Viruses will infect your phone by clicking suspicious hyperlinks, pop-up ads, downloading attachments, and installing unnecessary apps. It is noted that Android phones are more vulnerable to viruses and malware than iPhones.

The iPhones can be affected by viruses if you jailbreak your iPhone and install applications from unapproved third-party app stores (To learn more click here).

Types of Cell Phones Viruses

Already we’ve discussed “Can smartphones get viruses and malware”. In this section, we’ll discuss which types of viruses can infect a cell phone. Different types of viruses can infect cell phones. Here is the list of some common types of cell phone viruses are as follows:

Trojan Virus

Can mobile phones get Viruses? A Trojan is a software program that looks at legitimate apps and it can install on your cell phones. Once the software is installed on your cell phone, the trojan virus can capture sensitive information, such as login credentials, bank account details, or credit card information, and damage your data. It can also deactivate applications on your phone.

Adware

Adware is unwanted software that installs without your permission and displays advertisements on your mobile screen. It is used to collect information, redirect you to vulnerable websites, and throw advertisements into your web browser.

How Does Adware Attack? 

• Whenever you click on that type of advertisement it redirects you to an advertising website and collects information from you.
• It steals your sensitive information and login credentials by monitoring your online activities and selling that information to a third party.
• It may also slow down your internet connection by using up valuable bandwidth to retrieve advertisements.

Spyware

Spyware is a software program also known as a spy app that secretly monitors and records information from target phones. It records cell phone calls, text messages, and other sensitive information such as browsing history, messaging data, location, and contacts.

Phishing

Phishing is a type of cybercrime that attempts to gain sensitive and confidential information through email messages, websites, or phone calls. The information is usernames, passwords, credit card information, and network credentials.

In this attack, an attacker sends phishing emails to victims to steal login credentials and personal information.

Learn more about Types of Phishing attacks.

Learn more about How to Prevent Phishing.

Ransomware

Mobile ransomware is a type of malware that typically displays a message that the phone has been locked and demands money to access the phone. It is delivered via malicious apps and deletes the infected app to retrieve access to your mobile. The recent ransomware attacks are WannaCry, Petya, Cerber, Locky and CryptoLocker, etc.

How Does Ransomware Install on Cell Phone?

All types of threats are typically installed in a phone in the following ways:

• Whenever you’re downloading and opening a malicious email attachment
• Install infected software or apps.
• When the user visits a malicious or vulnerable website
• Click on untrusted web links or images.

Learn more about How to remove viruses from your Phone.

FAQS

Can cell phones get viruses from websites?

Yes, a cell phone can get viruses from websites. A fake or malicious website may contain viruses and malware. Whenever you’re visiting a malicious website or clicking on a suspicious web link, your cell phone can get viruses.

Can Cell Phones get viruses from email?

Yes, a Cell Phone can get viruses from email. There are different ways a virus can spread, email is one of the easiest ways to infect virus or malware on your cell phone.

Whenever you’re going to download malicious email attachments or click on a suspicious URL, there is a chance to get a virus from your email.

Can We Detect Virus or Malware in Cell Phone?

The answer is yes. We can detect Viruses or malware in Cell Phones using antivirus software. Professional antivirus software can scan and detect viruses and malware on your smartphone.

Conclusion

Finally, a cell phone can get viruses and malware and your sensitive information will be compromised by hackers. The best way to detect and protect against viruses and malware is to use good antivirus software.

In this post, we have discussed what cell phone viruses are and can cell phones get viruses. After reading this post you can be able to protect your phone from viruses and malware. Hope the article will be helpful for you!