How to Protect Your Android Phone from Malware

According to the latest market surveys and reports, it has been declared without any shred of doubt that Google’s Android OS has monopoly as far as the smartphone market goes. Out of the smartphones in the world, 87.5 % of them run on some version of the beloved operating system. To put it simply, nine out of ten smartphones in the world currently run on Android. And while the operating system is a very good and reliable one, its high popularity is also what makes it a popular target for malware.

And while it’s true that you can also use an antivirus for your phone, the safest way to protect your Android phone from being infected by Trojans, viruses or other types of malware is to maintain its hygiene. No, we don’t mean that literally; you don’t need to clean its screen more often. You just need to pay a bit more attention to how you handle app downloads and other things that put you at risk. Here are a few useful tips to help you avoid getting malware on your Android phone.

• Always keep your phone updated. OTA updates roll out to our phones all the time, and sometimes we’re too lazy to install them. However, these updates are crucial because they contain security patches that are essential to our devices’ security. Therefore, whenever you are prompted to update something, do so as soon as you have access to a WiFi network.
• Back up your data. This is another crucial thing most of us never do. If your phone does end up being infected by some sort of malware, you will have to reboot it. Therefore, backing up your data in some way, shape or form is always a good idea for later recovery. After all, we all store very important things on our smartphones, so it’s good to have them backed up.