Mobile banking goldmine for cybercriminals
Mobile banking goldmine for
cybercriminals
AUCKLAND and AMSTERDAM – 9 November 2012 – Consumers who use their smartphones to access online banking services are among the latest targets for cybercriminals, according to the AVG Technologies Q3 Community Powered Threat Report released today.
AVG predicted growing sophistication in mobile malware earlier in 2012 and the Q3 threat report affirms that suspicion, with mobile cybercrime being the biggest trend of the third quarter. Malware known as Zitmo (or Zeus in the Mobile), a new version of well know malware Zeus-on-PC has recently been spotted, targeting the 1 billion smart phone users globally. AVG has been tracking its evolution and has identified how hackers are exploiting the growth in mobile banking by releasing Zitmo for mobile platforms, notably Android, in very controlled attacks.
A 2012
PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ report “Zitmo is not new malware as such; but
the new ways in which we are seeing cybercriminals use it
underlines this worrying trend of socially engineering
security attacks to match evolving consumer habits,” said
Michael McKinnon, Security Advisor at AVG Technologies AU.
“We always recommend consumers exercise care when sourcing
and downloading apps onto their smartphones, as unofficial
third party sites are usually the best places for
cybercriminals to seed malware-ridden versions of popular
apps. People get caught out because they cannot tell if they
have the malware on their phone, so it’s best to install
mobile security software and keep it updated in order to
have peace of mind when using mobile banking and social
networking services.” Consumers using social networks
are increasingly at risk as cybercriminals can now buy
ready-made malware on subscription. Social networkers were
hit this quarter by an explosion of attacks using the
notorious Blackhole Exploit kit, the first ‘commercial’
malware. The attack left users unable to log-on to their
accounts or access any games or applications as
cybercriminals coordinated the attacks from multiple
external advertising servers, which generated an exceptional
increase from 250,000 attacks to over 1.6m recorded events
within an eight hour period. To download the full
Q3 2012 Community Powered Threat Report, please visit:
http://www.avg.co.nz/files/media/avg_threat_report_2012-q3.pdf
Keep up to date with our regular threat bulletins
on the AVG News & Threats About the report The AVG Community Powered
Threat Report is based on the Community Protection Network
traffic and data collected from participating AVG users over
a three-month period, followed by analysis by AVG. It
provides an overview of web, mobile devices, spam risks and
threats. All statistics referenced are obtained from the AVG
Community Protection Network. AVG has focused on building
communities that help millions of online participants
support each other on computer security issues and actively
contribute to AVG’s research efforts.
The AVG
Community Protection Network is an online neighbourhood
watch, where community members work to protect each other.
Information about the latest threats is collected from
customers who participate in the product improvement program
and shared with the community to make sure everyone receives
the best possible protection.
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AVG — www.avg.co.nz
AVG Technologies’ mission is to simplify, optimise and
secure the Internet experience, providing peace of mind to a
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inherent network effects, mutual protection and support. AVG
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June 30, 2012 and offers a product portfolio that targets
the consumer and small business markets and includes
Internet security, PC performance optimisation, online
backup, mobile security and identity protection.