Tag: Android phone

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Tips and Guidelines

Google Play Protect Can Now Scan Malware Threats In Real-Time

Google has enhanced its Play Protect security feature with real-time scanning abilities. It can now scan your Android phone in real-time to defend against threats like Malware. This feature will certainly make Android devices more secure against emerging threats.

Google Play Protect Gets Real-Time Scanning


The Google Play Protect feature can look for threats on your Android phone in real time. Google is implementing this new feature at the code level. It can protect against emerging threats such as polymorphic Malware, which can change its identifiable features.

As cybercriminals use techniques like social engineering to deceive users into downloading malicious apps, Play Protect can make your phone more secure.

Google Play Protect will scan your phone when you try installing an app that has never been scanned. You will see a new prompt to “Scan app” and “Don’t install app”.

This prompt will also explain why it considers the app harmful. Google is rolling out this feature in India, which will soon be available in other countries.

When Play Protect detects a harmful app, it can send you a warning to prevent its installation or automatically disable it. The Play Protect scan will extract important signals from the app and send them to Google’s backend structure for evaluation.

After the analysis is complete, it will send you the result to inform you whether the app is safe or harmful. The company claims it uses machine algorithms for its protection to learn from each submitted to the Play Store.

It checks thousands of signals and checks app behaviour to protect users. Google Play Protect scans more than 125 billion apps daily to ensure users stay safe.

Categories
Tips and Guidelines

How to speed up an Android phone

Fortunately, there are plenty of things you can do to help. Our first tip on how to speed up Android phones is: just reboot! Turn your phone off, then turn it on again.

This might seem weird, but there’s a good reason for it. If, like many people, you leave you Android phone on all the time, it will gradually see its memory filled up by little bits of memory that stick around from apps that you’ve closed. Gradually, the phone will fill up with temporary files – a bit like having your head so full of things you need to remember that you can’t get to sleep. Rebooting frees up this memory and once you restart it, the phone should be working just like new again.

But if that doesn’t work, you may need to try some other ways to speed it up. In this article, we’ll talk a little about why your phone might start to run more slowly, and then we’ll look at how to speed up Android tablets and phones.

Clean up your home screen
Take a look at your home screen. If you’re running a load of widgets – the news, weather, social feeds, emails, calendars – they’re one of the reasons your phone is slowing down. Every time you wake your phone or go to the home screen, your phone has to load all this content— that’s a big ask. Reducing the number of widgets will free your phone up to do other stuff.

Clean up your apps
Phones tend to accumulate software over time. You see an app that might be useful, and you install it, but you never use it. All the same, it’s taking up space, and it may well be running certain processes in the background even though you haven’t opened it. This all slows your phone down, so taking a look at your apps and reducing the number downloaded can help speed up your Android phone.

Clean up your data storage
The next step in speeding up Android phones is cleaning up data storage. Too much data on your phone can cramp your operating system’s style, so freeing up space should improve its performance.

You’ll actually need to install a new app to help you with this – Files by Google. It’s a neat program that can find files wherever they’re lurking on your phone and get rid of duplicates; it’s also very customizable. If your phone only has 16GB total space, it’s a great tool for freeing up space. Look specifically for downloads you no longer need, and for large files that can be deleted.

You can also free up space by using the cloud to store your photos and other files, rather than keeping them on internal memory. Photos can be set to automatically back up to your Google Drive, for instance, so you can remove them from your Gallery on the phone.

Should you update to speed up Android phones?
Many people who want to know how to speed up Android think updating to the latest version will help them. But that’s not always the case.

For some phones, updating to a newer version of Android (we’re now on Android 10) can significantly improve performance as all those tiny improvements in the operating system add up to a big boost.

But if you have a phone more than a few years old, particularly if it’s low on storage, you might find an update will actually slow your phone down. Your phone just might not have the amount of storage or memory to handle the update.

There are ways to roll back updates, but they’re sometimes quite complicated. If your phone is over three or four years old, perhaps running Android 4, it’s probably best to leave the system the leave the system the way it is.

Watch out for malware
A big reason for some Android phones and tablets running slow is that they’ve got malware installed on them. You may have installed an app that comes with a malicious app riding piggyback (that’s why you should only download apps from the official app store) or clicked on an infected link in an email. You might also experience symptoms like your phone crashing, your data usage increasing inexplicably, your battery draining quickly, or even your phone overheating.

Categories
Tips and Guidelines

Can You Get Viruses on Android? Every Android User is at Risk

The double espresso and bagel you ordered wasn’t cheap, reminding you it’s been a while since you checked your bank account. You pull out your Android phone and sign into your bank’s app.

You’ve unknowingly just opened yourself up to a common security vulnerability. With a technique called a “man-in-the-middle” attack (MITM), a hacker sets up a Wi-Fi network disguised to look like your coffee shop’s network. If you join it, hackers can gain access to your device and see what you’re doing, including logging keystrokes or installing Android malware. This is just one of many attacks occurring on mobile phone users every day — and it’s far more common for hackers to target Android users.

Why Are Android Users at Risk?
Any smartphone is potentially susceptible to security vulnerabilities, but phones running Android operating systems are much more likely to fall prey. Unlike Apple’s iOS, Android operating system software is open source, meaning anyone can modify it. If a developer makes an error, it’s easier for a hacker to find and exploit those security gaps.

Android also has a larger market share compared to Apple. This means that it’s far easier and more lucrative for hackers to create and release Android malware to obtain users’ sensitive information. If you use an Android smartphone or device, the following tips are essential for mitigating your risk of having your personal details hacked.

Don’t Login to Sensitive Accounts in Public
Hackers can’t steal your passwords and sensitive information if you don’t divulge them, or download Android malware without your permission. Anytime you’re on a public network, limit your mobile phone usage to activities that won’t reveal any of your sensitive information. And close your mobile applications.

Avoid Suspicious Emails and Websites
Ransomware is now as commonplace on mobile devices as it is on PCs. In these cases, cybercriminals will typically block access to the device (or, less commonly, encrypt data stored on the device) and demand a ransom. The best way to avoid these attacks is to be smart about downloading apps. Stick to reputable marketplaces or legitimate websites, and if an email or message looks suspicious, don’t open it.

Conduct Research on any Mobile Apps You Want to Download
Malicious apps can do everything that PC malware can do (and more, since SMS Trojans are specific to mobile devices). Before you download and install any mobile apps, make sure you’re downloading from a reputable marketplace. Also, ensure the app and app provider have well-developed terms of service, clear contact information, strict app developer criteria, and a history of providing legitimate content. Any of the above not accounted for should raise a red flag.

Install Antivirus for Android to Ensure Mobile Security
It is strongly recommended that you protect your device with a reputable antivirus for Android. Consider this an investment in your personal and financial security.