McAfee, the Cybersecurity firm from California has issued a warning to all android users in UK to beware of a Brazilian Trojan that is targeting smart phones leading to several banking frauds.
The malware is seen lurking in the Google play Store as legitimate apps that gives remote access to hackers and siphons data from the victim device.
As per the statistics available to our Cybersecurity Insiders, over 68% of smart phones in UK are operating on Android OS and so users must be wary of downloading apps from the play store even if they look genuine.
Security analysts say that the Trojan in discussion is B-RATs- Brazilian Remote Access Tool Android that first appeared in South America in 2018 and then spread its wings through various malware campaigns to UK, US, and Canada from 2019.
Technically RATs often pose as security apps to users and ask them to update their smart phone to keep their apps such as Google Chrome, WhatsApp and PDF viewer up to date with the latest security fixes. And as soon as these apps are updated, they instead download malicious software that either allows hackers remote access to the targeted device or steals data such as passwords. Some Trojans are also found leading the victims to Phishing websites that are used to harvest banking details such as usernames and passwords.
As per the analysis of McAfee, such Trojans disguised as genuine applications are downloaded over 5000 times and have targeted intensely smart phone users from Portugal and Brazil.
Now, they might have shifted their focus to UK and are seen targeting Britons as they can earn huge in pounds.
So, how to defend your phone from such malicious apps….?
Its simple! Never download any apps outside play store. Always be wary of apps that once downloaded promise to update other apps for security purposes as 99% of such apps are malicious. Also download only apps that have a great reputation as 4-5 stars.
