People will tell you that phones can't get viruses, but that's not really true.
However, if you follow a few simple rules, it's easy to avoid Android viruses altogether.
We'll talk about the signs that Android has a virus,
how you can avoid them, and what to do if your phone gets infected.
First, public charging stations. You see a plug.
On the other end of it could be a tiny little computer waiting to steal your data.
Next is device management accounts and apps, like the ones legitimate businesses do use,
but they can be abused and act like a virus on your Android.
We'll show you how to take care of those later.
Next up, malvertising. Malicious advertising.
Put them together, you see an ad on a website,
you click on it, you download an app, then your Android gets a virus.
The next is public Wi-Fi networks. Public Wi-Fi networks just aren't as secure as your Wi-Fi at
home. It's very easy for somebody to intercept your data or infect your Android with a virus.
Third-party app stores. One thing Androids do that iPhones cannot
is download apps from a variety of different places.
So you've got the Google Play Store, you've got the Samsung Galaxy Store.
They're both secure. But what about all those other app stores out there
that don't take the same precautions to protect you from viruses?
You could easily download a malicious app.
Software security vulnerabilities. Sometimes the operating system on your Android does have some
security vulnerabilities that open the door for hackers to infect your Android
with malware or ransomware. We're using words like malware,
ransomware, and virus a lot. Let's talk about what each of them actually mean.
Malware is any type of software that is intentionally designed to cause harm to your
phone. Malware can be used to steal your data, change or corrupt your files without your knowledge,
or a whole bunch of other bad things. A virus is a type of malware that replicates itself by
infecting files or computers. In this case, it's your phone.
Ransomware is a different kind of malware where a bad guy encrypts your data and won't give you
access to it unless you pay the ransom. Ransomware can also be used from a blackmail
where they'll threaten to release your private info or maybe your photos if you don't pay them.
Let's talk about the telltale signs your Android has a virus.
The first thing to look for is apps you didn't install, so let's open the settings app. I'll
swipe down from the top of the screen and tap the settings gear. Scroll down.
Two apps. And you'll see a list of all the apps installed on your Android. If you see
one that you didn't install, tap on it and then tap uninstall.
When you're looking through this list, bear in mind that many of these apps
masquerade as anti malware apps. So if you see Mr Malware Cleaner 3000, uninstall it.
If you can't uninstall an app, it's probably a native Android app that
shouldn't be able to give your Android a virus, but we do need to dig a little bit deeper.
It's possible that a bad app has been granted device admin access,
which could prevent you from uninstalling it, but that should be the least of your worries.
Apps with admin access can control pretty much everything on your Android. To see which apps on
your Android have admin access, let's tap back upper left hand corner of the screen to the apps
page. Tap the three dots upper right hand corner of the screen, then tap special access, then tap
device admin apps. Right now I have find my device and Outlook device policy.
David, do you use Microsoft Outlook?
I do not.
Then why is this installed on your phone?
I don't know. If you don't have an Outlook account, you don't need Outlook device policy
having control over things like being able to monitor your screen unlock attempts or
lock the screen of your Android or set storage encryption on your Android. Let's turn that off.
I'm going to tap deactivate at the bottom of the screen, then tap OK.
It blows my mind that this is turned on by default because it's kind of leaving a back door
for a hacker to just build one of these policies that's fake
and then infect your Android with a virus.
Just keep in mind that if you got this as a work or a school phone,
somebody might need that device admin access for some of these apps.
Ask your IT department at your work or school if you can turn them off.
Next, we need to check if apps on your Android have the ability to install other apps,
which could be bad without your permission.
Let's tap back upper left hand corner of the screen, then tap Install Unknown Apps.
These are the apps right now on this Android that can install other apps without my permission.
Crazy.
It is crazy. And even your Android will say
installing apps from the source may put your phone and data at risk.
I don't know why this is on by default, too.
We recommend turning this off for every single app.
If an app in the future needs to be able to install unknown apps for some reason,
it's beyond me, you could always come back in here and enable that one specific app.
Otherwise, like David said, just turn them all off.
Next, let's talk about those device management accounts and apps.
There's something called Android Enterprise.
Android Enterprise is a set of tools and services that let IT professionals
and big businesses administer tons of different Android devices at the same time.
While this service is perfectly legitimate,
it can be abused by bad actors who are looking to take control of your phone.
When you're looking through your list of apps, you need to watch out for MDM,
or mobile device management, tools and apps,
or device policy apps that would let somebody take control of your phone.
If one of these apps or profiles has been installed on your phone without your knowledge,
it could be a sign your Android has a virus.
There are two places we need to check.
The first is in the app section of settings.
Let's tap back up the left-hand corner of the screen back to the main apps page.
And as David said, look for MDM or device policy apps in your list of apps.
The other place to look is in the accounts section of settings.
Let's tap back upper left-hand corner of the screen to the main page of settings.
Scroll up, tap accounts and backup, then tap manage accounts.
Look for anything suspicious in here.
And if you see an account that you want to delete, just tap on it and then tap remove account.
We know we go through these settings really quickly.
That's why we created PDFs with all the settings we talk about
in this video and other videos that are available to download for free
if you're a channel member.
To learn how to become one, click the join button below the video.
The next sign your Android has a virus is increased data usage.
There could be some malware running on your Android and sending your data somewhere else.
To check, tap back to the main page of settings on your Android.
Scroll up and tap on connections, then tap on data usage.
This doesn't have a cellular plan, so we'll just tap on Wi-Fi data usage
and look for any suspicious looking spikes.
You actually can see down here which apps are using data.
David's phone looks fine.
He's been downloading apps, so it makes sense the Google Play Store has been using a lot of data.
But if you see an app that seems like its data usage is just way off the charts high,
that could indicate a problem with the app.
Another sign your Android has a virus is that the battery drains really fast
or your Android gets really hot.
Just like with data usage, there's a way for us to easily check
which apps are using the most battery on your phone.
Let's tap back upper left hand corner of the screen,
back again and back to the main page of settings.
Scroll down to battery and device care.
Tap on that and then tap battery and scroll through your list of apps
and see if anything is standing out here as a major battery drainer.
David's phone looks fine here.
For instance, Samsung Capture is doing the screen recording,
which you're seeing right now on the screen, so it's using battery.
But if you see something here that's way outsized, it could be a problem.
Or if you see screen recording on your phone and you're not taking those screen recordings,
somebody else might be taking those screen recordings on your phone
and sending them somewhere else, so be careful of that.
That's a tip for another day.
Just keep in mind it's normal for your phone's battery to drain fast
or for your phone to heat up when you're playing a heavy 3D game.
When you see a weird pop-up on your phone, you have to ask yourself,
is this a real virus or is it just spam?
The way people have been sending us spam has gotten more and more clever over time.
One of the most common ways we're getting spam today is calendar spam.
You receive an unsolicited invite to an event in your calendar.
Or you subscribed to a calendar that seemed legitimate,
but now your phone's calendar is full of these random spammy events.
These events are annoying, but more importantly,
they could contain harmful links that could infect your Android with a virus.
The first thing to do is review which apps actually have calendar access.
Let's head back to the main page of settings.
Scroll up and tap on Security & Privacy.
Scroll down and tap Privacy.
Then tap Permission Manager and then tap Calendar.
Right now, 14 apps have calendar access.
That seems like a lot.
Do we really want TikTok to have access to your calendar?
I know I don't, so what I would do is I would tap on TikTok
and then I would set this permission to Don't Allow.
But when you stop giving an app access to your calendar,
it doesn't remove the events that app has already set up.
Let's close out of Settings.
Go to our apps and tap Calendar.
I'll tap the hamburger menu upper left-hand corner of the screen.
And here we see hot singles in your area.
Let's tap that Settings gear and then tap Manage Calendars at the top of the screen.
Tap on this Spam Calendar.
It's definitely spam.
I didn't subscribe to this.
Sure, sure.
And then tap Delete upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Then tap Delete.
That spam calendar is gone.
You've probably seen scary-looking pop-ups on websites that say things like
your phone has been hacked or you have a virus.
But has your phone actually been hacked?
No, it's a lie designed to scare you into clicking a spammy link,
which would then give your Android a virus or compromise your data.
Don't click the link.
Just close the tab.
To close the tab on your Android, let's head out of this calendar app.
I'll open up Google Chrome.
I'll tap my tabs button upper right-hand corner of the screen.
And just tap the X next to any tab that you want to close.
It's in the upper right-hand corner of that little tab preview.
If you did click a link but you didn't give up any of your personal information,
it's still a good idea to clear your browsing data.
In Chrome, in your tab view, tap the More button upper right-hand corner of the screen.
It's those three vertical dots.
Tap Settings.
Scroll down and tap Privacy and Security.
At the top of the screen here, Clear Browsing Data.
Tap on that.
Make sure all these boxes are selected.
Get a nice clean slate here.
Then tap Clear Data at the bottom of the screen.
Then tap Clear.
Unfortunately, people don't always realize they've been duped by one of these pop-ups
before they've given away some of their information.
So what if you have given up your password?
If you've given up your password, go to that account and change your password immediately.
Makes sense.
What if you've given up your bank account or credit card information?
Contact your bank and say, I made a mistake.
Please help me.
I'm not buying a yacht right now.
What if you gave up your social security number?
Well, you got to contact the FTC.
We'll leave a link in the description section of this video.
Or you could just use the number I have on speed dial, 1-877-ID-THEFT.
We'll talk about the surefire way to get rid of an Android virus,
but first let's talk about how to avoid getting one in the first place.
And before we do, if you could avoid not subscribing to our channel
by clicking the subscribe button, we would really appreciate that.
It helps us out.
One great way to avoid Android viruses is to keep your operating system up to date.
As we mentioned at the beginning of the video,
outdated software can have security
vulnerabilities that are very easy for hackers to exploit.
To update your Android, let's close out of Chrome.
I'll go back to the settings app by slipping down from the top of the screen
and tapping the settings gear on the main page of settings.
Scroll down to software update, tap on that, then tap download and install.
I don't know about you, but sometimes I haven't updated my phone in a while,
so I have to come back here a few times to get all the latest security updates.
The next thing to do is make sure you have a saved backup of your Android.
While this won't prevent you from getting a virus,
it will help protect your data in the event that you do.
Right.
If your phone gets infected with ransomware, for instance,
it's better to have a backup so you lose three days of photos,
not an entire lifetime of photos.
To back up your Android, let's tap back to the main page of settings.
Scroll up and tap on accounts and backup,
and then choose to back up your data to the Samsung cloud, Google drive.
I don't care.
Just make sure you back up your phone.
Next, don't click links on sketchy websites and sketchy emails or in sketchy text messages.
For example, if you get a text from your bank saying your account balance is in trouble,
or you've had some crazy withdrawal,
and they want you to click a link and enter your information, don't trust it.
Contact your bank directly first.
Emails can be sketchy too, and hackers are clever.
For instance, I've been getting emails that say my subscription to McAfee, for instance,
is about to renew for $300 for the year,
and I just need to click on a link and enter my account information to cancel it.
But I don't have a McAfee subscription.
They're just trying to get my email password.
The next thing to avoid are public charging stations.
Especially if you see a pop-up on your phone that asks you to trust this device
or enable USB file transfer.
And you should also avoid using the third-party app stores.
Google Play, the Galaxy store, they have a lot of great safeguards built in.
Those safeguards just don't usually exist with those sketchy third-party app stores.
One additional layer of security that's especially important for Google accounts
is two-factor authentication.
How do we turn that on?
Let's tap back to the main page of settings.
Tap on Google.
Then tap manage your Google account.
We're going to go over to the security tab here.
Scroll down to two-step verification.
Tap on that.
Enter your password.
If you've never done this before, just follow the on-screen prompts.
Two-factor is so important these days.
Even the biggest YouTubers have been getting hacked lately.
I had a friend that got hacked, but then Linus Tech Tips,
unfortunately not a personal friend.
If he could get hacked, then God knows we can get hacked and so can you.
Two-step won't prevent hacks, but it's a really important extra layer of security
that makes it a lot harder for your phone to get hacked
or for somebody to put a virus in there.
But in Linus's case, it actually was somebody on his team
that clicked a link in an email and then logged in with their Google account.
It's what happens to everybody at every level.
Nobody is safe, so you might be asking yourself,
shouldn't I just install antivirus software?
If you follow the steps in this video, you don't really need antivirus software,
even though sometimes your Android will try to sell you McAfee straight out of the box.
If there's an app that is built into the Settings app on your phone,
you know money is changing hands between McAfee and Samsung.
The only exception I would make is maybe
you've been struggling with something on your Android for a long time.
You can't really track it down.
It's a lot easier just to quickly install an antivirus app,
scan everything to see if it catches anything,
rather than going into safe mode and going on a wild goose chase.
Other than that, I would never install antivirus software.
David is correct about that.
McAfee is probably more trustworthy than antivirus software called Antivirus Cleaner 4000.
Right. That's probably a scam.
Yeah.
That's probably malware.
Don't download that one.
And remember, even if it has 4.6 stars or whatever in the App Store,
those things can also be manipulated.
Let's talk about how to get rid of an Android virus for good.
Switch to iPhone.
No, that's not this video.
OK, another way to do it is factory reset.
This erases everything on your Android to factory defaults.
Make sure you have a backup before doing this.
Otherwise, you're going to lose all of your data on your Android.
Let's close out of our Google account here and tap back to the main page of settings.
Scroll down to general management.
Tap on that, then scroll down to reset, then tap factory data reset.
That's a scroll through this list at the very bottom of the screen.
There's a big reset button.
Tap that.
And iPhones aren't necessarily better than Androids at protecting you from viruses.
iPhones are just as vulnerable to malvertising
and phishing scams and other things that let people steal your information.
Now that you're on alert about Android viruses,
watch this next video to find out how your Android might be spying on you right now.
Scary stuff.
We'll see you there.