DIGITAL LIFE

Malware: Problems such as unexplained overheating or increased data and power consumption may be symptoms that your smartphone is infected

It never hurts to warn against clicking on strange links that you receive in your email or even in social media messages. You should always be suspicious if the address is unknown because it could direct you to a malicious website, infecting you with malware. There are many forms of phishing to try to trick the less attentive, such as recently misleading SMS messages pretending to be from the National Health Service or other forms. The truth is that attacks are increasing, in a more sophisticated way in Portugal and precautions must be taken.

Keeping an eye on your smartphone can be a way to avoid possible malware or spyware installed. There are symptoms of equipment that may not be malfunctioning, but may actually be contaminated. You should also get used to some digital hygiene habits, such as restarting your smartphone at least once a week to protect it from possible spyware attacks, a family of malware that spies on devices.

Spyware apps can invade users' privacy without being noticed. These can monitor calls, messages and the user's location. Therefore, it is necessary to know the symptoms that there is an application running in the background.

Excessive data consumption...Regardless of your tariff plan, whether you have too much or too little data to use each month in your data package. Monitoring consumption can be an effective way of detecting “intruders”. This is because spyware may be sharing data outside of the device, so if you notice excessive consumption, this could be a sign. Record your balance and make a monthly note of your browsing or videos consumed and see if the data you consumed makes sense.

Equipment is slower...It is known that there are many reasons why a smartphone loses performance and becomes slower, such as having too many applications open at the same time. What you should be suspicious of is if your smartphone suddenly became slower. Check if it takes longer to open applications or perform tasks when it didn't before. If your apps are constantly freezing, it could very well mean that you are running other tasks in the background that you cannot detect.

Smartphone overheats for no reason...Sypware is silent, but leaves traces and overheating is a major symptom. There aren't many reasons for a smartphone to overheat when it's not performing any tasks. And one of the things that heats up the equipment the most is precisely the use of Wi-Fi on mobile networks. This means that the equipment is sending data out, which is a sign that it is infected.

Battery drained faster than expected...As you use your smartphone, it is natural for the battery to degrade and its full charge will no longer have the maximum autonomy capacity as it did the first time you turned on the device. But it is not normal if the battery drains very quickly. Before concluding that the battery has gone bad, proceed with tracking down spyware as this could be the cause.

Strange and unsolicited advertising pop-ups are appearing...Without a doubt, if you are using your smartphone and out of nowhere a pop-up with dubious advertising appears, it means that the device may have malware. Spyware can be linked to adware systems, subscribing the user to advertisements without their consent. These messages may affect the user experience.

Malware protection software has been disabled...You may have clicked on a link and loaded a silent malware, but it acts as a Trojan horse, by disabling the equipment's defenses, antivirus or antimalware systems. Make sure you have no security applications active, otherwise you may be vulnerable to further attacks.

Messages with links received from known contacts...There are malware campaigns that take advantage of social networks to spread the infection. When you receive a link from a known contact, there is a good chance that you will click on it because you know the contact. This is a serious symptom of group infection and you should immediately alert the sender and not click on them if you do not know them.

Do you hear noises during phone calls?...During phone calls you may hear a strange static sound. This can happen when calls are being recorded or listened to by spyware systems. Poor signal reception can be another indicator.

Smartphone comes to life on its own?...Waking up or going to sleep without touching your smartphone could mean that someone or something is running spyware in the background. Be aware if it restarts randomly, without having any difficulty turning it on, as these are signs of infection.

How to protect your smartphone?...In addition to rebooting your smartphone, there are some applications that can help diagnose your devices if you suspect they are infected. The iVerify app is available for iOS and Android smartphones. On Apple smartphones you can also use the Am I Secure? app, which is said to be capable of detecting advanced spyware systems like NSO's Pegasus.

If you are considering a more radical measure, do a factory reset, resetting the smartphone to its original settings.

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