Remove Ad Pop-ups and Other Malware on the Samsung Galaxy S10

Samsung latest flagship, the Galaxy S10, is an extremely powerful and high-end mobile device which has no more than a handful of rivals. The S10 is a premium octa-core mobile device which means it has enough processing power to run heavy-duty software. Unfortunately, wherever there is a capacity for heavy-duty software to be able to run, there are always malicious individuals looking to capitalize on that processing power.

Moreover, when using a device like the Samsung Galaxy S10, it is highly likely that you will be using the smartphone for more than just making calls and texting people. You probably have connected your online accounts including your emailing client (Gmail, Outlook, and others), your storage device on the cloud (Dropbox, Google Drive, and others), your social media accounts, and possibly even a few banking applications where your account is logged in.

This may not sound too important to you but all this information sitting in your mobile device is a gold mine for people who intend to use it for their own gain.

On a much lighter note, the Galaxy S10 has also been targeted by countless spamming scripts that run advertisements on the active browser without the consent of the user. This may be a lot harmless when compared to malicious hackers.

But it does become very annoying at one point and the premium experience of the S10 is ruined. In this article, we will walk you through some simple but very effective strategies that you can use to protect yourself from spammers and hackers.

Dealing with Random ad Pop-ups on Your Browser

If you are a victim of this issue, you will notice that your browser regularly shows ads that you never subscribed to and nor do they have an option for you to turn off. This probably means that your Samsung Galaxy S10 has been hijacked and the culprit is forcibly showing ads on your screen to earn the revenue.

Finding the Root Cause

The first thing to do in this situation is to check if a third-party app has hijacked your browsing experience. The easier way for you would be to try and think about an application that you have recently downloaded which also may not be created by a very authentic developer team.

If you can pinpoint on an application, good for you. Delete that application and check if the problem has vanished.

If not, then you will have to boot your Samsung Galaxy S10 in safe mode. Safe mode is a safe and secure boot environment on Android which allows developers and technicians to troubleshoot problems in a device or debug applications that they are developing.

Entering Safemode

1. Shut down your Galaxy S10.
2. Press and hold the power button once the shutdown is complete. Hold the power button even after the device comes back to life.
3. When the screen comes to the “SAMSUNG” flash screen, release the power button and immediately press the volume down button and hold it. Don’t let go of the volume down button until the device finishes booting completely.
4. If you have followed the process properly, the Galaxy S10 must have loaded in safe mode and the “Safe Mode” should be written on the bottom left corner of the screen.
5. Release the volume down button and you’re good to go.

Once in safe mode, open your browser and start surfing. Keep browsing for an hour or a half and see if any rogue ad shows up.

Safe mode bans third-party applications from executing at all. So, if the problem has been caused by a third-party application, your browsing experience in the safe mode should be completely ad-free which would mean that a third-party application has indeed hijacked your browser.

The Elimination Method

Now that you have found the issue, it’s time to remove the malware application. Start by deleting the most recently installed application on your Samsung Galaxy S10, restart your smartphone, and start browsing to check for any changes.

If the ads still show up, move on to the next application and repeat the process again by deleting, restarting, and testing the problem again. The process may feel a bit hectic, but it is absolutely necessary for you to enjoy a seamless browsing experience.

Turning Off Notifications on a Website

A lot of websites today ask the user to allow push notifications to receive the latest news or the latest updates and other such stuff even when the website is not opened. Many websites respect this privilege and only push relevant and useful notifications using this feature.

Countless other websites, however, use it for malicious purposes and push random, unethical, and inappropriate notifications to the browser. Most of the popular Android browsers let you change these settings easily. Follow the steps below to turn off spam notifications on your browser:

1. The advertisement displays its originating URL on a corner. Open Chrome on your Samsung Galaxy S10 and enter that URL and hit enter.
2. When the website has loaded, press the action menu button (three dots on the top right corner of Chrome).
3. Tap on “Site Settings”
4. On the new page, you should be able to see a “Permissions” section. In this section, tap on the “Notifications” button.
5. Once opened, you should see that notifications are allowed for the website. Turn off the option by tapping on the switch.
6. You’re all done. Do the same for all spam websites you have green-signaled and your browsing experience should be “cleansed”.

Keeping your smartphone safe from malicious software is not as hard as it may seem. Just follow the best practices. Only download applications that you are confident about or if they come from a trustworthy development team.

Even after Google’s extensive attempts to stop malware from the Play Store, malicious applications still make their way to the platform. All you have to do is to be attentive to which application you download and which website’s notifications you allow.