Does your Android phone support NFC? Your data may be at risk

Android phones were affected by a bug which allowed hackers to transfer malware through NFC beaming. Google patched this Android bug last month but devices are still at risk as NFC beaming is turned on by default.

Android phones which have NFC enabled use this to transfer large files with the Android Beam file transfer feature. Android Beam will automatically copy files when two NFC-enabled devices are in close proximity. Although enabled by default, this feature notifies users of the files being copied on their smartphones.

Android Beam lets users copy APK files as well but with the usual Google prompt of installing apps from unknown sources. Users are warned of the APK file transfer along with the unknown sources alert.