What signs can indicate presence of malicious applications in your smartphone?

Sometimes malicious applications do not make themselves felt at all, but sometimes their presence can be suspected by certain “symptoms.”

IT expert Sergey Lipov believes that unstable operation of an application may be one of the signs of its maliciousness.

If an application constantly displays annoying advertisements and links to suspicious sites or other applications with unknown developers, this is also a reason to be wary.

If the phone starts sending messages without the user's knowledge, this is already a very serious cause for concern.

You should also pay attention to user reviews: if they complain about the strange behavior of the application, unexpected requests for access to personal data and other suspicious actions, even if this application behaves “well” for you, this is still a reason to think about deleting it, he believes Lipov.

What other signs might indicate that a malicious application was installed on your phone?

NEWS.am Tech editors also recommend paying attention to the following signs:

• Data usage. If you notice a sudden increase in your data usage (especially while connected to the Internet) or an increase in your phone bill, this could be a sign that you have a malicious app running in the background that is actually consuming extra data.
• Low battery. Malicious apps often run processes in the background that can drain your phone's battery faster than usual. If you notice a significant decrease in battery life without any change in your phone usage patterns, this may indicate the presence of a malicious app. True, the battery may also be at fault here, as it deteriorates over time and loses part of its original capacity.
• Low productivity. Malicious apps can use system resources and slow down your phone's performance. If your phone starts to run slowly, freezes every now and then, or crashes frequently, this could be due to malware.
• Unexplained charges or purchases. Malicious apps may attempt to make unauthorized purchases or transactions using your phone's payment methods. If you notice any unfamiliar charges on your credit card statement or unauthorized in-app purchases, this could be a red flag.
• Strange “behavior”. If your phone “behaves” strangely, opens and closes applications on its own, changes settings, or downloads and installs any applications without your knowledge, you should think about the fact that it may contain dangerous software.
• Malicious apps running in the background can cause your phone to overheat, especially if they use a lot of processing power. If your phone has become unusually hot to the touch recently, it might be worth checking for malware.

If all these problems are detected, it is recommended to remove the suspicious application and scan the phone with anti-virus programs. You can also consider resetting your phone to factory settings if the problem persists after deleting all strange apps and scanning with antiviruses.