The invention discloses a method and a terminal for preventing a short message from being stolen. The method comprises the following steps of monitoring a preset application to call an operation instruction for reading permission of the short message; determining a privacy short message when a content of the short message or a short message sender meets preconditions; backing up the privacy short message to a preset short message box; and sharing the short message box after the privacy short message is modified or deleted to the preset application for reading. Through adoption of the method and the terminal, the user privacy can be protected and the information leakage can be prevented.