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A malware is some software specially designed to harm your computer or smartphone, or to get your personal information for various anti-social purposes (let’s say spying on you). It may be a virus, a spyware, worm, or a Trojan, but their sole purpose is to harm you. Nowadays, since smartphones are more in use, these malwares are aimed mostly at them. So here are some precautions that you can adopt to stay away from them:
1. Download Stuff From Trusted Sources
While you download stuff (songs, pictures etc.) into your mobile, be sure that you don’t download anything but what you want to download. Sometimes, rather most of the times, a file that you want to download is accompanied with a malicious software, that drains out your personal information out of your phones and can be used for anything, and the worst part is that you’d never know. One such unwanted application is Mobogenie that automatically gets downloaded onto Android phones and can cause serious troubles. Don’t believe messages on your browsers that say anything about your phone slowing down or those that offer you “hot pics”.
2. Don’t Cache Passwords
Well, it must be very annoying to type your password again and again onto your device, but this is the key area where most of the spywares attack. They phish out the cache from browsers and hence, can gain access to your private accounts. So the only foolproof method to avoid this is to not save these passwords. Oh, and while you’re at it, turn on the 2-step verification to be extra safe. Click here to know more about two-step verification.
3. Don’t Fall Into Traps Of Spams
You might have come across emails claiming that you’ve won a billion dollars in some lottery you never signed up for, or something like this:
Never click on these links, unless you’ve subscribed or signed up for them as they may contain software that can get installed on your smartphones without your consent.
4. Be Extra Cautious If You’ve Got Root Access
This point is exclusive for Android devices.When you root your smartphone, you allow the apps to gain ‘root access,’ and once a malware gets this access, it has the rights to do almost anything on your device, without your knowledge. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t root your phones. Just be careful while you grant Superuser privileges, and don’t grant these permissions to non-trusted software downloaded from non-trusted sources. Though we recommend not to download such softwares, but even if you do, don’t grant them Superuser permissions.
5. Install An Anti-Malware Program
Though these apps aren’t enough for keeping the malwares away, they do help to some extent. There are a plenty of such applications out there, most of them free. The best rated ones include Lookout, AVG, or Avast. Mostly, they check installed apps, and watch out for malicious codes.
