Can Windows Phone Get Viruses?

[Per Ekelund]

I have virus on my Windows phone (Nokia Lumia 1320). Message: "A critical update is ready - download no?". If you answer yes, you will loose contact with your phone. You will only see two screws running gainst each other. It goes on until the phone is out of battery. When loading, the picture eats all power. You will need to get your seller to reprogram. So, sure, Windows Ohone can get virus.

 

[anon(8542752)]

I have virus on my Windows phone (Nokia Lumia 1320). Message: "A critical update is ready - download no?". If you answer yes, you will loose contact with your phone. You will only see two screws running gainst each other. It goes on until the phone is out of battery. When loading, the picture eats all power. You will need to get your seller to reprogram. So, sure, Windows Ohone can get virus.

Nope it's not a virus. It's just an update to fix bugs which your phone still facing. Bugs such as:

- scroll issues
- IE crashes
- system updates

WP still fresh thou... It's coding is different than the desktop windows. So im sure WP is not yet vulnerable to malware/virus. I think the only way for WP to get infected is through the store.

 

[neo158]

I have virus on my Windows phone (Nokia Lumia 1320). Message: "A critical update is ready - download no?". If you answer yes, you will loose contact with your phone. You will only see two screws running gainst each other. It goes on until the phone is out of battery. When loading, the picture eats all power. You will need to get your seller to reprogram. So, sure, Windows Ohone can get virus.

No, Windows Phone can't get viruses. That's a system update and you should read my post further up to see why WP can't be infected by them.

 

[Torcher Death]

This thread was fun to read even though it deals with a serious issue.
To clear things up, windows phone as of now is very secure due to sandboxing nature & low market share (probably the only plus point). Of course, its not virus resistant, its just there is no WP specific virus yet & hopefully stays that way.
As for the people with issues on IE, that's cause the sites are mostly built for chrome & other browsers & since IE tries to fake itself as being an android browser, you'll see stupid pop-ups like "Your ANDROID device has xx viruses" or others redirecting you to play store & unlike desktop where these open as new windows, on the phone, they just take over your current tab & refuse to go unless you hit back repeatedly.
So rest assured that for now, your phones are very secure & just steer clear of random links.

 

[Torcher Death]

I have virus on my Windows phone (Nokia Lumia 1320). Message: "A critical update is ready - download no?". If you answer yes, you will loose contact with your phone. You will only see two screws running gainst each other. It goes on until the phone is out of battery. When loading, the picture eats all power. You will need to get your seller to reprogram. So, sure, Windows Ohone can get virus.

Thats an update for your phone & not a virus. Also, its best to plug your phone into charge while updating, preferably on Wi-Fi or a faster network.

 

[xandros9]

I have virus on my Windows phone (Nokia Lumia 1320). Message: "A critical update is ready - download no?". If you answer yes, you will loose contact with your phone. You will only see two screws running gainst each other. It goes on until the phone is out of battery. When loading, the picture eats all power. You will need to get your seller to reprogram. So, sure, Windows Ohone can get virus.

Relevant XKCD

 

[Robson Siebel]

Probably can, but I never heard of any cases

 

[YanivC]

Nothing is 100% immune. Windows Phone has its security through obscurity. Basically, once WP really takes off it will have virus and malware levels on par with Apple's iOS. It is very unlikely you got a virus from that, but it is still a possibility.

Exactly correct. No operating system is immune to viruses. The same questions was posed about Mac OS. Everyone thought (and even apple marketed) that it was impervious to viruses. That was simply because not many people used macs so why would a malware developer write a viruse for 8 people? The write the viruses for the population, which currently is not windows phone (but hopefully soon will be, ironically giving us viruses lol).

 

[windobuddies625]

Damn virus developers

 

[YanivC]

you have no idea! I actually went to a friends house one day and he had a friend there developing "something". I noticed he was writing some VB code and asked him what he was doing and he replied (super excitedly) that he found a hack into someones site and was going to plant a VBScript that was going to steal some data and blah blah blah. I immediately got angered (as a developer myself I hate people evil coders) but thought, hey, maybe he has a good reason, maybe the owner of this site killed hisparents and tried to blame the murder on him!!! So I asked him..... him... why are you doing that? To which he replied..... why not? Its cool. O-O this is just about the time I got my fist stuck in his face for about 3 minutes Needless to say my friend "politely" asked me to leave and we haven't really spoken for years lol. Whatever.... I have evil coders.

 

[Gagandeep Shukla]

I have a little opinion too. Fir a virus to infect your system, it needs storage space then it needs ability to install itself and then execute itself every time ur system starts.
Lets say u somehow allowed a virus to store on ur phone and even executed it to be installed. Unless its a native exe (not was to get them), or an application from windows store it will not be able to execute itself even to install itself.
So that sort of viruses are out of picture that install by persuading user to click an executable.
On ie you may keep on clicking links and they may keep on bothering for a while but that's all they can do. If you are innocent enough to fill any form presented to you on web and also enter personal information you don't have to worry at all because those kind of stupids are meant to be robbed online or on road. But otherwise you are safe enough on windows phone.
And unless you go back to the site that bothered you last time u wont be bothered again by them just because u visited them some time back.
I may be wrong on several counts which is why I mentioned in the start that it's an Opinion.
Gdshukla

 

[Gagandeep Shukla]

But how does some hacker wannabe injecting vb code to steal some data from a website (although I'm sure he was hopelessly bragging), convinced you that wp can be infected with a virus.
I'm really not able to make the connection between a boastful newbee and an apparently secure os having a vulnerability exploitable by that same nube

 

[Redtag55]

Windows phones certainly can get viruses. My Nokia Lumia 735 is currently driving me nuts with a "Lucky Spinning Wheel" virus. It only pops up when I try to use Internet Explorer, but then it hangs around every time I try to access my "home" page. The only way I can avoid it is to turn off my phone then when I turn it on again avoid Internet Explorer like the plague.

I have tried to remove internet explorer from my phone, but it will not uninstall.

Anyone with knowledge of how to fix this, your assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Bruce.

 

[toph36]

Back up your phone, then do a hard reset. You can try to restore the backup during setup. If still having issues, do a hard reset and don't restore from the backup. You will need to reinstall apps and set up everything from scratch in that case though.

 

[Torcher Death]

Windows phones certainly can get viruses. My Nokia Lumia 735 is currently driving me nuts with a "Lucky Spinning Wheel" virus. It only pops up when I try to use Internet Explorer, but then it hangs around every time I try to access my "home" page. The only way I can avoid it is to turn off my phone then when I turn it on again avoid Internet Explorer like the plague.

I have tried to remove internet explorer from my phone, but it will not uninstall.

Anyone with knowledge of how to fix this, your assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Bruce.

You can't remove IE as its a system app, but what you can do is try closing the tab in which the spinning wheel site is opened & clear history & temporary files, just to be sure.
Pretty sure its not a virus, cause I've come across quite a few such sites.

 

[neodk]

Can you currently get a virus on your Windows Phone?

No

Could you at some point get a virus on your Windows Phone?

Possible. Anything is possible.

It won't likely happen due to the low adoption rate of Windows Phone currently. As it gains (if it gains) popularity and exploits are discovered it will become a regular thing. As it is, Android still takes the cake in terms of exploiting and injecting malicious code.

It's a combination of fragmentation of software in the marketplace and people continuing to be stupid with their electronic devices. Only fool-proof way to ensure that nothing gets infected is to cut off connectivity and make phones....phones.

 

[gajelas]

Nope

Windows phone has no virus because this OS has small user so there is no hacker to virus this things.
But there will be virus in the future probably as the sale increased.

But for now its still has no virus.


Like the bakery said : Fresh from the oven

 

[CIA Salam]

All,
After I had clicked a vedio link i losed several phone contacts from my lumia 730 windows10. I have also doubt about windows10 100% immune from viruses .