How to remove malware from your iPhone

An iPhone 11 Pro

While iPhones are known to be the most secure smartphones, they aren’t immune to vulnerabilities. If you aren’t careful with what you download and the websites you visit, your iPhone can get infected with a virus, resulting in performance issues and data security vulnerabilities.

Here’s what to do if your iPhone becomes infected with a virus:

To remove a virus from your iPhone:

1. Delete all apps you downloaded outside the native ones.
2. Check if any new apps were installed without your permission.
3. Once you get rid of the apps, restart your phone, and see if it’s back to normal. If it’s not, try to restore it to a previous backup point.

This article will explain everything regarding iPhone viruses, and most importantly, how to remove them.

Signs That an iPhone Has Been Infected

It’s usually easy to tell when a smartphone has been infected with a virus, and an iPhone is no different. Here are some of the most common signs:

• Performance issues: iPhones are fast and efficient systems, so if you notice that your iPhone is running slower than usual or apps are crashing, a virus may be to blame.
• Battery life is lower than usual: Viruses can run in the background and cause your battery to drain significantly faster than normal.
• Sending spam messages: The virus may try to spread itself to other devices by sending messages through iMessage or other messaging apps you may have installed.
• Unknown apps appearing: If you notice that some unknown apps have suddenly appeared on your Home Screen without your permission, there’s likely a virus involved.

If you notice some of these things happening on your iPhone, run a scan that uses reliable antivirus software from the AppStore to confirm that a virus is indeed the cause.

Are Viruses Common With iPhones?

While viruses can get into your iPhone, it is an improbable scenario. Apple as a company is highly focused on security and uses it as one of its major selling points for all its products.

iOS is a sandboxed system, which means that it prohibits different apps from sharing data. So, if one app becomes compromised, it will be difficult for it to proliferate and obtain more data from other apps.

Removing a Virus from Your iPhone

If you detect a virus on your iPhone, you should move fast to remove it in order to prevent it from spreading further and causing more damage.

Here is how to remove a virus from an iPhone:

1. Delete the affected app/apps

The first step is to delete all infected apps. Good antivirus software will tell you which apps are the problem. If you don’t know which apps are infected, delete all apps except for those that came with your iPhone.

1. Clean all browser history

Your browser contains all sorts of data, including your private information you may have entered on a malicious website, and threat actors can use this to access your phone and cause damage.

1. Restore your iPhone to the previous backup point

Creating a backup point every month or so can be very handy in a situation like this. It would allow you to go to a previous point before you started experiencing issues.

1. Reset your device

If all else fails, you may have to perform a factory reset on your device and erase all content to ensure that it’s free from the virus.

How to Protect Your iPhone

To prevent viruses and other security threats, you can take some extra precautionary steps that are made easy thanks to Apple’s dedication to user privacy and allowing customers to be selective about the amount of data they’re willing to share with others.

• Backup your data to iCloud: A virus can cause different types of damage to your phone, including erasing your data. To protect yourself from losing your data, back it up on iCloud so you can access it if it somehow gets removed from your phone.
• Don’t jailbreak your iPhone: Jailbreaking your phone allows you to install apps outside of the AppStore, among other things. However, it is the most common way an iPhone can get infected with a virus, so it would be best not to do it. Installing apps from unknown sources is a considerable risk.
• Use different passwords for everything: With so many apps out there, many people opt to use the same password for every one of them. However, that can allow hackers to access all your accounts while knowing just one password. That’s why it would be best to use a different password for all your accounts. A password manager, such as NordPass, can help with this and is very easy to use.