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Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new variant of an Android banking trojan called TrickMo that comes packed with new capabilities to evade analysis and display fake login screens to capture victims' banking credentials. "The mechanisms include using malformed ZIP files in combination with JSONPacker," Cleafy security researchers Michele Roviello and Alessandro Strino said . "In addition, the application is installed through a dropper app that shares the same anti-analysis mechanisms." "These features are designed to evade detection and hinder cybersecurity professionals' efforts to analyze and mitigate the malware." TrickMo, first caught in the wild by CERT-Bund in September 2019, has a history of targeting Android devices, particularly targeting users in Germany to siphon one-time passwords (OTPs) and other two-factor authentication (2FA) codes to facilitate financial fraud. The mobile-focused malware is assessed to be the work of

Bank customers in the Central Asia region have been targeted by a new strain of Android malware codenamed Ajina.Banker since at least November 2023 with the goal of harvesting financial information and intercepting two-factor authentication (2FA) messages. Singapore-headquartered Group-IB, which discovered the threat in May 2024, said the malware is propagated via a network of Telegram channels set up by the threat actors under the guise of legitimate applications related to banking, payment systems, and government services, or everyday utilities. "The attacker has a network of affiliates motivated by financial gain, spreading Android banker malware that targets ordinary users," security researchers Boris Martynyuk, Pavel Naumov, and Anvar Anarkulov said . Targets of the ongoing campaign include countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. There is evidence to suggest that some aspects of

For years, securing a company's systems was synonymous with securing its "perimeter." There was what was safe "inside" and the unsafe outside world. We built sturdy firewalls and deployed sophisticated detection systems, confident that keeping the barbarians outside the walls kept our data and systems safe. The problem is that we no longer operate within the confines of physical on-prem installations and controlled networks. Data and applications now reside in distributed cloud environments and data centers, accessed by users and devices connecting from anywhere on the planet. The walls have crumbled, and the perimeter has dissolved, opening the door to a new battlefield: identity . Identity is at the center of what the industry has praised as the new gold standard of enterprise security: "zero trust." In this paradigm, explicit trust becomes mandatory for any interactions between systems, and no implicit trust shall subsist. Every access request, regardless of its origin,

Android device users in South Korea have emerged as a target of a new mobile malware campaign that delivers a new type of threat dubbed SpyAgent . The malware "targets mnemonic keys by scanning for images on your device that might contain them," McAfee Labs researcher SangRyol Ryu said in an analysis, adding the targeting footprint has broadened in scope to include the U.K. The campaign makes use of bogus Android apps that are disguised as seemingly legitimate banking, government facilities, streaming, and utility apps in an attempt to trick users into installing them. As many as 280 fake applications have been detected since the start of the year. It all starts with SMS messages bearing booby-trapped links that urge users to download the apps in question in the form of APK files hosted on deceptive sites. Once installed, they are designed to request intrusive permissions to collect data from the devices. This includes contacts, SMS messages, photos, and other device i

Mobile users in Brazil are the target of a new malware campaign that delivers a new Android banking trojan named Rocinante. "This malware family is capable of performing keylogging using the Accessibility Service, and is also able to steal PII from its victims using phishing screens posing as different banks," Dutch security company ThreatFabric said . "Finally, it can use all this exfiltrated information to perform device takeover (DTO) of the device, by leveraging the accessibility service privileges to achieve full remote access on the infected device." Some of the prominent targets of the malware include financial institutions such as Itaú Shop, Santander, with the phony apps masquerading as Bradesco Prime and Correios Celular, among others - Livelo Pontos (com.resgatelivelo.cash) Correios Recarga (com.correiosrecarga.android) Bradesco Prime (com.resgatelivelo.cash) Módulo de Segurança (com.viberotion1414.app) Source code analysis of the malware has

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered new Android malware that can relay victims' contactless payment data from physical credit and debit cards to an attacker-controlled device with the goal of conducting fraudulent operations. The Slovak cybersecurity company is tracking the novel malware as NGate, stating it observed the crimeware campaign targeting three banks in Czechia. The malware "has the unique ability to relay data from victims' payment cards, via a malicious app installed on their Android devices, to the attacker's rooted Android phone," researchers Lukáš Štefanko and Jakub Osmani said in an analysis. The activity is part of a broader campaign that has been found to target financial institutions in Czechia since November 2023 using malicious progressive web apps (PWAs) and WebAPKs. The first recorded use of NGate was in March 2024. The end goal of the attacks is to clone near-field communication (NFC) data from victims' physical payment ca

A Spanish-speaking cybercrime group named GXC Team has been observed bundling phishing kits with malicious Android applications, taking malware-as-a-service (MaaS) offerings to the next level. Singaporean cybersecurity company Group-IB, which has been tracking the e-crime actor since January 2023, described the crimeware solution as a "sophisticated AI-powered phishing-as-a-service platform" capable of targeting users of more than 36 Spanish banks, governmental bodies, and 30 institutions worldwide. The phishing kit is priced anywhere between $150 and $900 a month, whereas the bundle including the phishing kit and Android malware is available on a subscription basis for about $500 per month. Targets of the campaign include users of Spanish financial institutions, as well as tax and governmental services, e-commerce, banks, and cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, and Brazil. As many as 288 phishing domains linked to the activity ha

Retail banking institutions in Singapore have three months to phase out the use of one-time passwords (OTPs) for authentication purposes when signing into online accounts to mitigate the risk of phishing attacks. The decision was announced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) on July 9, 2024. "Customers who have activated their digital token on their mobile device will have to use their digital tokens for bank account logins via the browser or the mobile banking app," the MAS said . "The digital token will authenticate customers' login without the need for an OTP that scammers can steal, or trick customers into disclosing." The MAS is also urging customers to activate their digital tokens to safeguard against attacks that are designed to steal credentials and hijack their accounts for conducting financial fraud. "This measure provides customers with further protection against unauthorized access to

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new sophisticated Android malware called  FjordPhantom  that has been observed targeting users in Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam since early September 2023. "Spreading primarily through messaging services, it combines app-based malware with social engineering to defraud banking customers," Oslo-based mobile app security firm Promon  said  in an analysis published Thursday. Propagated mainly via email, SMS, and messaging apps, attack chains trick recipients into downloading a purported banking app that comes fitted with legitimate features but also incorporates rogue components. Victims are then subjected to a social engineering technique akin to telephone-oriented attack delivery ( TOAD ), which involves calling a bogus call center to receive step-by-step instructions for running the app. A key characteristic of the malware that sets it apart from other banking trojans of its kind is the use of

An updated version of an  Android banking trojan  called  Xenomorph  has set its sights on more than 35 financial institutions in the U.S. The campaign, according to Dutch security firm ThreatFabric, leverages phishing web pages that are designed to entice victims into installing malicious Android apps that target a broader list of apps than its predecessors. Some of the other targeted prominent countries targeted comprise Spain, Canada, Italy, and Belgium. "This new list adds dozens of new overlays for institutions from the United States, Portugal, and multiple crypto wallets, following a trend that has been consistent amongst all banking malware families in the last year," the company  said  in an analysis published Monday. Xenomorph is a variant of another banker malware called Alien which  first emerged  in 2022. Later that year, the financial malware was propagated via a new dropper dubbed  BugDrop , which bypassed security features in Android 13. A subsequent iter

The European Banking Authority (EBA) on Sunday said it had been a victim of a cyberattack targeting its Microsoft Exchange Servers, forcing it to temporarily take its email systems offline as a precautionary measure. "As the vulnerability is related to the EBA's email servers, access to personal data through emails held on that servers may have been obtained by the attacker," the Paris-based regulatory agency  said . EBA said it's launched a full investigation into the incident in partnership with its information and communication technology (ICT) provider, a team of forensic experts, and other relevant entities. In a second update issued on Monday, the agency said it had secured its email infrastructure and that it found no evidence of data extraction, adding it has "no indication to think that the breach has gone beyond our email servers." Besides deploying extra security measures, EBA also noted it's closely monitoring the situation after restor

Cybersecurity researchers today disclosed details of two newly identified Magecart attacks targeting online shoppers of bedding retailers MyPillow and Amerisleep . Magecart is an umbrella term researchers gave to at least 11 different hacking groups that are specialized in implanting malware code on e-commerce websites with an intent to steal payment card details of their customers silently. Magecart made headlines last year after attackers conducted several high-profile cyber attacks against major international companies including British Airways , Ticketmaster , and Newegg . Magecart hackers use a digital payment card skimmer, a few lines of malicious Javascript code they insert into the checkout page of hacked websites and designed to captured payment information of customers in real time and then send it to a remote attacker-controlled server. Earlier this year, Magecart attackers also compromised nearly 277 e-commerce websites in a supply-chain attack by inserting its

A team of security researchers has discovered a critical implementation flaw in major mobile banking applications that left banking credentials of millions of users vulnerable to hackers. The vulnerability was discovered by researchers of the Security and Privacy Group at the University of Birmingham, who tested hundreds of different banking apps—both iOS and Android—and found that several of them were affected by a common issue, leaving their users vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks. The affected banking apps include HSBC, NatWest, Co-op, Santander, and Allied Irish bank, which have now been updated after researchers reported them of the issue. According to a research paper [ PDF ] published by researchers, vulnerable applications could have allowed an attacker, connected to the same network as the victim, to intercept SSL connection and retrieve the user's banking credentials, like usernames and passwords/pincodes—even if the apps are using SSL pinning feature. SS

In what considered to be the largest system hack in the country's history and a massive attack on the financial sector, several banks in Poland have been infected with malware. What's surprising? The source of the malware infection is their own financial regulator, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) -- which, ironically, is meant to keep an eye out for the safety and security of financial systems in Poland. During the past week, the security teams at several unnamed Polish banks discovered malicious executables on the workstations of several banks. The KNF confirmed that their internal systems had been compromised by someone " from another country, " although no specifications were provided. After downloads of suspicious files that were infecting various banking systems had been discovered on the regulator's servers, the KNF decided to take down its entire system " in order to secure evidence. " Here's what happened: An

Bangladesh is not the only bank that had become victim to the cyber heist . In fact, it appears to be just a part of the widespread cyber attack on global banking and financial sector by hackers who target the backbone of the world financial system, SWIFT. Yes, the global banking messaging system that thousands of banks and companies around the world use to transfer Billions of dollars in transfers each day is under attack. A third case involving SWIFT has emerged in which cyber criminals have stolen about $12 million from an Ecuadorian bank that contained numerous similarities of later attacks against Bangladesh's central bank that lost $81 Million in the cyber heist . The attack on Banco del Austro (BDA) in Ecuador occurred in January 2015 and, revealed via a lawsuit filed by BDA against Wells Fargo, a San Francisco-based bank on Jan. 28, Reuters reported. Here's how cyber criminals target banks: Uses malware to circumvent local security systems of a bank. Gains acces

A security researcher could have stolen as much as $25 Billion from one of the India's biggest banks ‒ Thanks to the bank's vulnerable mobile application. Late last year, security researcher Sathya Prakash discovered a number of critical vulnerabilities in the mobile banking application of an undisclosed bank that allowed him to steal money from any or all bank customers with the help of just a few lines of code. Being a white hat hacker, Prakash immediately reached out to the bank and alerted it about the critical issues in its mobile app and helped the bank fix them, instead of taking advantage of the security holes to steal money from the bank that has about 25 Billion USD in Deposits. While analyzing the mobile banking app, Prakash discovered that the app lacks Certificate Pinning , allowing any man-in-the-middle attacker to downgrade SSL connection and capture requests in plain text using fraudulently issued certificates. Also Read:  Best Password Manager — For

While accessing your Bank account online, Have you ever thought… ...there could be a Hacker, somewhere in the World, who is after your Money? Maybe NO . Because, you believe that your bank offers Secure banking solution, Right? At The Hacker News, we have reported many incidents of cyber attacks , which proves that Banks are more often being targeted by Hackers, despite robust Banking Security mechanisms. Today we are going to talk about security of one of the  Denmark's Largest Bank , reviewed by Sijmen Ruwhof , an Ethical Hacker, and IT Security Consultant. Ruwhof recently published a blog post, " How I could Hack Internet Bank accounts of Danish Largest Bank in a few minutes ". His In-depth technical post explains the extent to which Danske Bank , one of the largest Danish Bank, is vulnerable to hacking. In August, Ruwhof got intrigued with the idea of testing Bank's security while interacting with a group of Danish hackers at the Chaos Communica