A Guide To Banking Trojans, Malware Loaders, And How To Get Rid Of Them
Banking trojans are one of the most significant headliners in the global threat landscape. You will often see that Google has banned a series of apps for malicious activities. Once done, these marked apps disappear, but another horde of similar camouflaged apps appears to hook victims until they come under the authority scanner. But how do they do this? And how did they achieve their malicious intent? We would try to explain the activities in simple terms.
What is a banking trojan?
For the uninitiated, banking
trojans are a specific sort of malware intending to intercept
smartphone-installed banking apps and text messages to obtain the victim’s
banking login credentials to wipe off the account balance. Many banking trojans
are capable of bypassing two-factor authentication systems through SMS. Besides
extracting banking usernames and passwords, many banking malware also installs
spyware and keylogger software. Many powerful banking trojans are taught to
steal money from different mobile banking facilities via overlapping the
interface, among other methods. Banking trojans often come in the disguise of legitimate
utility apps.
Read more: Things you should know about Ransomware-as-a-Service
(RaaS)
The burgeoning list of banking
trojans appearing on Google Play
As the owner of the second most
popular operating system on earth, Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG)
proactively detects and bans a plethora of apps frequently, even though the
hoard of malware-ridden apps ushers in on the Android shore every day.
Bad actors usually target
popular categories of apps such as photo and video editors, keyboards with new
utilities and convenience, several system maintenance apps, social media apps,
wallpaper and ringtone apps, and note-taking apps to distribute malware masquerading
as authentic applications. And before Google’s TAG identifies their malicious
activities and boots them out of the official Android App Store, they do the
intended damage and change their cloak once apprehended.
Instead of carrying malware
while installing, these dropper apps, once installed, download more
potent and intrusive malware from a remotely held command-and-communication
(C2) server on the victim’s device. The downloaded malware changes according to
the lousy actor’s preference. Besides downloading the malicious payload from
the pre-instructed server, the dropper executes several actions to take control
of the device.
The most common among them are
Get Device Admin permissions
Modern malware intends to get
the device admin permission to ensure they can execute any commands without the
user’s knowledge and authentication.
Disabling Google Play protect
It is the most prevalent action
that every sophisticated malware prefers to perform because, this way, they can
stay away from radars.
Screen overlay
Getting control of the screen
overlay feature of a smartphone allows a perpetrator to trick the victim into
executing an action the latter believes is beneficial for them. For the uninitiated,
screen overlay is a feature that lets an app draw an extra view layer over
other apps, and malicious apps commonly exploit the feature to attack
users.
Read more: Countrywide
Infection Rate (IR) surges 7%. What’s Next?
Uninstall Apps
Once the perpetrator gets
device admin access, they start uninstalling selective apps on the device that
might obstruct their operation.
Install spyware
Spyware is an essential weapon
for threat actors. Nation-state actors use them to gain an undue advantage over
enemy nations’ financial, political, and social secrets. In contrast,
money-motivated actors often use them to steal financial information,
personally identifiable information (PII), user behaviour, etc. In the case of
a baking trojan loader, spyware is immensely handy to snitch financial
credentials by recording keystrokes and sometimes screen recording and taking
screenshots.
The droppers also collect user
data such as Android ID, phone number, installed apps, SMS messages, etc.
A checklist of safeguards
Threat actors lure Android
users for various reasons, ranging from financial benefits to espionage on
high-profile victims, creating backdoors on networks for lodging massive
ransomware attacks on enterprises. Therefore, both individuals and employees of
enterprises should embrace an extra degree of caution while dealing with
Android apps.
K7
mobile security offers robust, multi-layered protection against all
cyberattacks, including malware loaders, downloaders, trojans, phishing,
ransomware, SMiShing, malicious websites, PUPs, and other malware. However,
besides installing our Android cybersecurity suite on your Android device, we
recommend you practice the following actions to outsmart attacks aimed at you
or your enterprise.
·
Install all Android and security updates soon after they roll out.
Android and device manufacturers’ security updates fix a series of
vulnerabilities that the perpetrators could abuse.
·
Avoid installing apps from third-party app stores, even though
they sound tempting, offering free versions of premium apps. These apps deliver
malicious payloads or cracked versions of authentic apps injected with
malicious scripts.
·
Use separate and complex passwords of over 12 characters for each
app you have installed on your device. We recommend you install a password
manager to manage passwords.
·
Be cautious about clicking on links received via emails and social
messaging apps. Many of them are intended to pursue phishing activities and
take control of your device.
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