Hackers make users their victims by sending messages through WhatsApp and SMS and then hack money from their accounts to other things of the phone.
Phone Virus
McAfee has revealed in its report that more than 90 percent of epidemic-related malware has taken the form of Trojans. Actually, most of the people around the world are worried about Covid-19 and hackers are taking advantage of that and making people their victims. They are sending messages through SMS or WhatsApp asking them to download the Vaccine app and once the user clicks on that link, he is becoming a victim of it.
Earlier such a case also came to the fore in November last year when no vaccine was approved in India. McAfee said that behind this campaign is malware from the same family that was seen in July during the Tiktok ban. Along with this, McAfee also said that the first fake vaccine malware campaign was seen in Chile in February.
This malware is targeting such people
According to the report, researchers found evidence of an SMS worm targeting Indian consumers, one of the earliest vaccine fraud campaigns. It encouraged users to download a vaccine app by sending messages via both SMS and WhatsApp, and once downloaded, the malware sent messages via SMS or WhatsApp to everyone involved in the user’s contacts.
Hackers are using mobile malware called Atinu to read SMS messages and extract information needed to verify membership of a subscription service unknown to the user. More than 700 thousand downloads were reported before it was detected and removed.
This malware hides incoming SMS
The report states that once the app that stores this malware is installed through the Google Play Store, the malware hides incoming SMS messages using the notification listener function.
It can not only make purchases but also signup for premium services and memberships, for which the user’s account is charged. The report also states that hackers are using banking Trojans to target hundreds of financial institutions around the world.
141 percent increase in banking Trojan activity
McAfee Mobile Security detected a 141 percent increase in banking Trojan activity between Q3 and Q4 in 2020. Most banking Trojans are distributed through mechanisms such as phishing SMS messages to avoid Google’s screening process. According to the report, at the end of 2020 (Q4), the total mobile malware detected by McAfee reached 43 million, of which more than three million were new.
Venkat Krishnapour, engineering vice president and managing director, McAfee Enterprises, India, said in a statement, “As people spend more time online and connected to their mobile devices during the pandemic, hackers are targeting unsuspecting consumers. Huh.”
“With the dramatic increase in cybercriminals and threats exploiting mobile devices, it is our constant endeavor to ensure that we protect what matters most to consumers – their personal data,” Krishnapour said.
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