Phone Security Reset and Virus Removal

What does the reset actually do?

On a modern phone, erasing the device destroys the keys that encrypt its storage. Apple documents that Erase All Content and Settings "renders all user data cryptographically inaccessible", and Google requires every Android factory reset to delete data in a way that satisfies NIST SP 800-88, the US standard for media sanitisation. NIST calls this method cryptographic erase and classes it as a purge, its stronger tier, because recovering the data afterwards is "infeasible using state-of-the-art laboratory techniques" (SP 800-88 Rev. 2, September 2025).

What we add to the erase

So the erase itself is not the clever part, and you can run it from the Settings app. Our guide to wiping a phone shows how. What a security reset adds is everything around it:

• A check before the wipe. We read the device for the footprints of a compromised phone: a jailbreak or root, a management profile you did not put there, accounts signed in that are not yours, and the lock status that decides whether it can be set up again afterwards.
• The erase, run with certified software. The erasure software we use holds an ADISA Product Claims Test certificate, meaning ADISA's research centre independently and forensically verified that data could not be recovered after its wipe. ADISA is the UK body whose asset-recovery standard is recognised by the Information Commissioner's Office.
• A clean reinstall of the operating system, not a settings reset. The phone leaves running fresh software with nothing carried over.
• A per-device report recording the identifiers, the date and the result, which is what a bank or an insurer wants to see.

The reset makes the phone clean. It does not make your accounts safe. Those are two jobs, and the accounts come first.

Why there is no scan

What the reset does not do is scan for anything. There is no antivirus step, because on a phone there does not need to be one: the NCSC says phones "can't usually be fixed by an antivirus product" and that "the safest solution is to do a factory reset". Erasing the storage removes whatever was on it, named or not.

Does this remove a virus from my phone?

Yes. A full erase is phone virus removal that does not depend on knowing what the virus is. A phone "virus" is nearly always an app: on Android, something installed from outside the Play Store, a fake banking app, or an app that asked for accessibility permissions it had no business having; on an iPhone, more often a configuration profile or a web page pretending to be a scan. Antivirus apps look for things they recognise. Erasing the storage and reinstalling the operating system removes everything on the device whether anyone has a name for it or not, which is why the NCSC's advice for a phone that may be infected is a factory reset rather than a scan.

If you are not sure whether there is anything on the phone at all, the signs that mean something are unexpected verification codes, an app or profile you did not install, and settings that have changed by themselves. A hot phone with a flat battery is the sign every list leads with and the weakest on its own. Our guide ranks them in how to know if your phone is hacked.

What it will not do is fix a "virus" that was never on the phone. A pop-up saying your iPhone has 13 viruses is an advert; the phone is fine and the thing to remove is the browser tab. If the phone itself behaves normally and the worry is a text you tapped or a call you took, the reset is still a reasonable way to draw a line under it, and we will tell you if we think you do not need it.

Why do so many people need this now?

Ofcom's research from February 2026 found that 40 per cent of UK mobile users had received at least one suspicious text in the previous three months, and 32 per cent a suspicious call on their mobile. That is after the networks blocked, by Ofcom's estimate, at least 600 million scam texts a year. The ones that get through are the missed-parcel link, the "Hi Mum" message from a new number, and the call from the bank's fraud team that is not the bank. Forward a suspect text to 7726, which is free and spells SPAM on the keypad.

What it costs, and who pays

UK Finance's annual fraud report for 2025, published in June 2026, counted 248,070 cases of authorised push payment fraud, the kind where a victim is talked into moving the money themselves, with losses of £576.4m, up 19 per cent on the year. Unauthorised remote banking fraud, where a criminal gets into the account without the customer's say-so, cost a further £104.4m. Nearly all of it starts on a phone, with a call, a text or a link.

Since 7 October 2024, banks in the UK must reimburse most APP fraud up to £85,000 under the Payment Systems Regulator's rules. The condition that matters here is that you report it promptly and do what the bank asks. Nothing in the rules requires a reset, but a bank that has flagged your phone as unsafe will not let you back into its app until the phone is clean, and that is usually the moment people find us.

What the official advice says about the phone

Most official advice stops at "call your bank and report it". The figures on this page were checked on 2 October 2026. The exceptions are worth knowing: Citizens Advice says that after a remote-access scam you should reset your passwords and "could also get an IT professional to check your computer", and Age UK tells victims to make sure their phone and tablet are secure as well as their accounts. On a phone, the way to be sure is to erase it.