No matter how users swear that the Android operating system is vulnerable to various viruses, the main cause of infection is the illiteracy of the person himself. How does a threat get into a phone or tablet? For example, a user wanted to download a broken version of a paid game. Such manipulation in 80% of cases threatens infection with the virus. Another common situation: a message arrives on any social network with a link. Few would resist the temptation to follow it. At this stage, the threat penetrates directly into the phone. We will talk about what to do and how to protect ourselves from such a situation in this article.
Fakes
Often, the virus on Android can hide under completely harmless applications: browsers, navigators, games, players, books and, most interestingly, antiviruses.
There are two types of threats. One of them is called "fake." It got its name not by chance. Such a component may look like a well-known application, but inside it has malicious code. A similar program (viruses on Android can be disguised as your favorite VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and so on) when it starts, it starts to act actively.
"Trojan horse"
The second type of threat has received a generalized name - “Trojan horse”. Such viruses are more harmful, they are difficult to calculate, respectively, it is almost impossible to remove if the user is a novice. They are embedded in any frequently launched application on the phone or tablet, changing its source code.
We'll talk about ways to remove such threats below, but you need to know that most of them are located in the Downloads folder.
Why are viruses dangerous?
The virus on Android can perform many actions. Consider the most popular below.
- The most common activity that an unsafe component deals with is making calls and sending messages. All this is done in the background, so the person does not even notice it. The virus terminates when the funds on the account run out. After replenishment, it is activated again.
- Another type of virus collects information and sends it to the appropriate servers. As a rule, passwords and logins, data from bank cards fall under the gun. It is rare that viruses steal information from the device itself.
- The remaining infected components block the operation of the smartphone or tablet on which they hit. Often they are banners extorting money.
How to distinguish a “healthy" application from a viral one?
The vast majority of viruses that are quickly and easily installed on devices are written by unprofessional programmers. They are necessary for easy money making. That is why calculating such threats is quite simple - just look at the list of permissions of the installed application. As soon as this virus appears on Android (on a phone or tablet) and the consumer activates it in the system, it will immediately start sending messages to paid numbers or calling them.
Not all applications work this way. However, these are the most common and, by the way, easily eliminated.
What to look for when installing applications from third-party resources? The first call is if the program makes obscure requests about:
- access to the camera - it means that the developer wanted to shoot something;
- access to memory and Internet connection - files from the phone are needed;
- Administrator rights - needed in order to block the screen with ads.
The quality virus on Android is more difficult to identify. But you need to be wary if the application is downloaded from an incomprehensible resource and asks for the right to perform paid functions - such software is 99% virus.
How to remove a virus if you have access to the menu?
Public and one of the easiest ways to get rid of viruses is described in this section. If the consumer understands that a threat has “settled” in his phone or tablet, it’s worth taking action:
- To get started, you must immediately remove the SIM card. This step will help protect the owner’s account from unpredictable expenses.
- After that, you should download any antivirus via Wi-Fi. It is impossible to recommend something special, since most of the well-known defenders are updated every time, so they are all highly effective. The most popular are Doctor Web, Kaspersky.
- You must run a detailed scan and remove all existing threats.
- After the entire procedure, you should eliminate the antivirus.
- You need to download a second antivirus. The first one needs to be deleted for the reason that sometimes two similar applications cannot work simultaneously on the same device.
- After checking the device and removing all suspicious programs, it is necessary to disable access to administrator rights for all installed software. If suddenly one of the programs does not allow to do this (which already makes you think), you need to load the device in safe mode and perform this manipulation from it.
- After that, you need to go into the installed applications and remove from the device those that are not familiar to the owner.
- The last step is to reboot the device.
For those who did not help the above method, you can recommend resetting to factory settings. This usually erases all viruses that have been installed. But this option will not be useful for components embedded in the system itself. So, the easiest way to remove the virus from the Android phone has already been described in detail and will help most consumers. If, nevertheless, it did not work out on your own, one thing remains - to contact a service center.
How to eliminate a virus from a phone or tablet if there is no access to the menu?
As a rule, there is no access to the menu if the screen is “captured” by a banner requiring to replenish the account of a phone number or bank card. What to do in this situation?
Attention! In no case do you need to transfer money to the specified details. Fraudsters do not unlock the phone.
- The first thing to do is remove the SIM card from the device. Otherwise, the virus can empty it in a short time.
- You should boot the phone in safe mode. No need to worry: the banner will not appear in this case, since only the basic applications necessary for the functioning of the operating system will work.
- You should go to the menu and disable administrator rights for all programs.
- Uninstall unknown applications.
- Next, reboot the device.
If that doesn’t help, a standard reset method would be a smart solution.
Firmware change
The question of how to remove the virus from the "Android", which is deeply "embedded" in the firmware, is of interest to many people. Let's consider some effective ways.
It is immediately necessary to say that a banal reset will not help. Such viruses are embedded in the operating system and receive root rights, which (by standard) are not even available to the user.
The most effective and perhaps the easiest solution for experienced owners is to change the firmware. If you care about the safety of all the files that are on the device, then you can always make a "backup". However, some devices have a similar function in the public domain, while others require administrator rights for this. Firmware is best downloaded from the official resource. If you want, you can install any other, not necessarily the one that is factory. Just use the search engine and find the right version for your phone.
Root rights
If the consumer is an advanced user, you can get root rights and manually get rid of the virus. It should be noted that some threats are considered standard and are personally built into the system by the manufacturer. Often, such software is not involved in pumping money or data. Such a virus simply occasionally displays ads on top of windows. You can close it with the help of a "cross". Many people ask the question: "How to remove viruses from Android through a computer and is it realistic to do this?" In this way, often the user gets super-administrator rights. By the way, you can also change the firmware through the computer. Instructions for installing root rights are available on the Internet. On our own, we add that this method is suitable for those who know which application is viral.
Total
The article describes in detail standard and more sophisticated ways to rid your device of infected components. Now it’s not so scary to deal with the problem when viruses are not removed from Android. Such systemic threats can cause serious consequences if you do not deal with them in advance. Therefore, you should be as vigilant as possible. No need to download games from extraneous sources or follow strange links.
To remove the virus from the phone (“Android”) through the computer, you must have the necessary skills. And if they are not, it is best to contact either friends who have repeatedly changed their firmware or installed root rights, or in a service center.