Smartphone viruses: How to protect yourself

Viruses are becoming an increasingly common smartphone threat, potentially putting you at risk of personal data theft, financial loss or worse.

Yet protecting your phone from viruses is simpler than you might think and in this guide we explore the ways that you can prevent yourself from becoming a smartphone virus victim.

What is a smartphone virus?

A smartphone virus is no different to a virus that you might get on your computer, so the damage and problems that one could cause if it infects your mobile could be exactly the same.

So-called “cyber criminals” are also increasingly exploiting vulnerabilities in smartphone operating systems (OS) in order to infect or takeover your handset.

In fact a report by anti-virus firm Symantec found that software holes have already been used to infect hundreds of thousands of mobile devices this year alone.

Anti-virus software for smartphones

Many of the major PC anti-virus software developers (Sophos, Symantec, McAfee and so on) have already launched smartphone-specific versions of their software in the form of apps.

Smartphone anti-virus apps work in much the same way as the software on PCs; hunting out and destroying potentially harmful viruses, while also scanning all new data received - such as emails and pictures - for harmful bugs.

For example, Symantec’s free ThreatCon iPhone anti-virus app offers “protection from malware, security risks, vulnerabilities, and spam” in a user-friendly format.

If you’re an Android smartphone user then AVG’s range of paid-for app downloads - AVG Mobilation helps you protect your device from a wide range of threats, including viruses, malicious apps, OS vulnerabilities and more.

Smartphone manufacturers are now also starting to up their game in the war on viruses, with Sony Ericsson’s new Xperia mini pro coming pre-installed with anti-virus software.

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Anti-virus software for smartphones

Although anti-virus software is the most effective way of protecting your smartphone from a virus threat, there are other ways of protecting the valuable information stored on it:

• Only download apps from trustworthy sources, such as iTunes and Android Market
• Deleting financial information, such as bank account passwords, that may have been automatically stored by your phone
• Logging out of websites when you’ve finished browsing.

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