Phone battery draining fast? Malware is one of 8 possible factors - how to tell for sure

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. There are many possible causes of your phone's battery degradation. Sometimes the culprit is malware: How to identify and remove it. Lately, is your smartphone consuming more power more quickly, and your battery life deteriorating? Could malware be responsible? OK, let's take a deep breath. Before we walk you through the steps to investigate and fix a malware problem on your phone, let's look at some other possible culprits behind your power issue. Batteries age, get damaged, and become less efficient as we repeatedly charge and drain them. At first glance, high power consumption and a steep drop in the number of hours a full charge lasts might raise the alarm that something is on your smartphone that shouldn't be there. Mobile malware is designed to stay hidden, which means your phone battery could be dying as malicious software quietly drains your power without any signs, notifications, or other strange behavior. However, there are many…