Have you ever wondered, “Can my phone get viruses?” Well, yes you can get viruses on your phone, but it isn’t as common as a regular computer virus. They can do many things such as getting your personal info, shutting your whole phone down, and a lot more.

How Easy Is It To Get A Virus On a Smartphone?
Getting a virus on an Android phone is a lot easier than getting one on an iOs device. This is because while Apple checks apps that want to be on the market, the Android market doesn’t. This means that the author of the app could make it paid and insert a virus into that application. It is also easier to get a virus on an Android phone because it is more customizable (not in the way like interface). iOS has a lot of restrictions on what you can do, meaning that the virus likely wouldn’t be able to do much unless your device is broken. Meanwhile, the Android devices are much more customizable, so the virus would be able to do much more. It’s like comparing the amount/severity of PC viruses to an Apple computer. Since it is easier to hack a device on Android devices, the programmers target Android devices.

What Can Viruses Do On My Phone?
As I mentioned in the beginning, viruses can get your personal info, and shut your whole phone down. Although these are the main things that they can do, they can also do so much more to your phone. The viruses on your phone can send a text message to somewhere so that they get money, or just somewhere random across the world so that you have to pay extra money on your phone bill. The virus can also send your information to anyone, which is quite dangerous, reason being that they can steal your credit card information, where you live, and also your bank account information. Another scary part of the viruses is that they can also make your phone into a botnet so that the people who hacked your phone can use it for DDoS, spam, and more. What also can happen is that the virus that you have can be transferred to your computer when you connect your phone into your computer. Viruses can do much more on your phone that it would be almost impossible to list them all.

What Can I do To Protect My Phone From Being Infected?
You can do many things to protect your phone from being infected. First of all, you should install an antivirus that is popular on the market, and make sure that it has good reviews to make sure that it is a reliable antivirus. You can also take care on what you download on your phone. An application might seem to be a great thing to buy, but after you buy it, it might actually turn out to be a virus. You can also read the reviews on applications to make sure that it isn’t a virus. Becareful of where you surf the web, as viruses can also get into your phone just by browsing on the internet.

Whether you are surfing on the web on your phone or downloading things, make sure to be wary of what you are doing because Smartphone viruses can be just as dangerous as computer viruses.

Paul is a freelance writer that loves to share tips on smartphones in general. You can have a look at his site on Mobilspionage.