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Help malware & virus an issue for Note 8 android?

Leob

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2016
154
41
Is malware & viral concerns an issue for the Note 8 android?
(i'm coming from iphone where less a concern)
How do I know if I'm currently infected and compromised?
Is there any protection app that is suggested?
What are best practices here?
 
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Let's first say that if you were told that malware is not an issue on iPhones, then you were misinformed. Bad guys are out there and they target EVERY platform.

With the Note8, best practices would be the same for the iPhones. Don't root/jailbreak, only install apps from trusted sources like the play store or Amazon's app store. Stay away from open public networks, keep your data encrypted, enable two-step authentication.

The truth is that there are not true viruses (self-replicating at the hardware layer) anymore that propagate in the wild. The malware you are most likely to encounter is some form of scripting that execute existing commands to steal data, or compromise your account. That happens more through social engineering than by brute force or programmatically. The exception, of course, is if you install hacked apps which have malicious code built into them.

How do you know you've been compromised? Unfortunately, sometime you won't ... not until it's too late. That's why it's important to protect your information. I'm not a big fan of security apps. Most of it is smoke and mirrors IMHO. Follow safe practices and it becomes unnecessary.
 
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I've never had this issue on Samsung before, but my Samsung Internet has been sort of hijacked. No issues anywhere else on the phone. I can stop it for a little while, but it comes back. It's a website that keeps coming up that says I have a virus on my Note8 and then a pop-up comes up telling me to visit the play store for an anti-virus program. It even has a countdown timer for when Doomsday will be (about 4 hours or so). I can get to other sites after using <back> and typing in a new web address. Cleaned cache, restarted, etc. I will be calling Samsung about this when I get a chance. Chrome does not seem to be impacted.

It's possible I may have visited a "questionable" website that I've used successfully on my pc, but I would never admit to such a thing...

Redeye
 
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You aren't infected..those "questionable" sites bring you pup ups suggestin you to "click" to play or to "clean" supposedly because you are already "infected"..but by clicking is when you really can get the virus..I get those all the times not even by going to "bizarre" or exotic sites..what I do is immediately hit "tabs" and close those last two..the reason they keep coming back to you is because was the last one opened..you can also check if your default site didn't become one of those you are trying to keep away..some times they have a way to change your default to the one of their products..

I hope it helps.
 
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