As the whole world is going through a COVID 19 Lockdown, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation aka FBI says that the usage of mobile banking apps has increased in the past couple of months putting the users to the cyber threat risks.
According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the latest research over 75% of Americans have used various banking apps last year and the numbers have increased by 8% in the past two months of this year.
The internationally recognized law enforcement agency claims that the usage has increased immensely due to the repeated requests made by local governments to follow strict social distancing norms while visiting banks. And as the banking customers are finding it difficult to adhere to the rules, they have started to use banking apps as an alternative to visit the bank on a physical note.
This is where the cyber risks are growing says FBI as hackers are seen grabbing every opportunity to exploit those using the banking apps and have started making money through Trojans and fake banking apps.
“Banking Trojans can act as dropping points for malware which includes spyware and ransomware. And it can help hackers to steal data from mobile phones such as text messages, passwords, contacts lists and eavesdrop to conversations made on microphone and camera”, said Kacey Clark, a Threat researcher at Digital Shadows.
Thus, the FBI is advising its users to download apps only from official platforms such as Google Play Store and is urging them to switch to a two-factor authentication if necessary. At the same time usage of anti-malware solutions on the mobile device is being highly recommended. Furthermore, if you come across an app or link which is a highly suspicious report to the bank via customer care.
