FBI warns of increased hacking risk if using mobile banking apps

guest · Jun 10, 2020

FBI warns of increased hacking risk if using mobile banking apps
June 10, 2020
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...ed-hacking-risk-if-using-mobile-banking-apps/

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) today warned mobile banking app users that they will be increasingly targeted by hackers trying to steal their credentials and take over their banking accounts.

The alert, published on the agency's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), says that the increased usage of such apps during the pandemic could lead to more exploitation attempts targeting their users.
The FBI is anticipating that threat actors will focus their attacks on mobile banking customers since most Americans are using such services for making payments, transferring funds, and cashing checks.

"US financial technology providers estimate more than 75 percent of Americans used mobile banking in some form in 2019," the FBI says. "Studies of US financial data indicate a 50 percent surge in mobile banking since the beginning of 2020."
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The FBI anticipates that malicious actors will try to exploit new mobile banking customers using a wide range of techniques, including but not limited to fake banking apps and app-based banking trojans.
Mitigation measures
The FBI says that users and organizations can easily defend against such attacks by taking several measures that will thwart the hackers' attempts.

First of all, you should always download mobile banking apps straight from your bank's website or official apps stores such as Google's Play Store or Apple's iOS App Store since all apps included are scanned for and checked for malicious behavior and content. [...]
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The Hammer · Jun 10, 2020

There are a lot of scams in the Google and Apple stores so you still have to exercise caution.

guest · Jun 12, 2020

Security industry responds to FBI warning of increased mobile banking risks
June 12, 2020
https://betanews.com/2020/06/12/fbi-mobile-banking-warning/

Earlier this week the FBI issued an alert about the risk of mobile banking platforms being targeted by cybercriminals during the current pandemic lockdown.
Security professionals have been responding to the news.

Trojans and fake apps are expected to make up the bulk of the attacks and ESET malware researcher Lukáš Štefanko points out there are important differences in the approaches.

"Banking trojans are devious -- they try to make users install them by pretending they are something fun or useful, but definitely totally harmless. Think games, battery managers and power boosters, weather apps, video players, and so on."
Fake banking apps, however, are more straightforward -- they try to convince you that they are the real deal says Štefanko, "Once installed and launched, they lead with a login form, just like a real banking app would. And, as you probably already guessed, the credentials submitted into the form are harvested."
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Sam Bakken, product marketing manager at OneSpan warns that app developers as well as consumers need to be aware of the problem.
Chris Hazelton, Director of Security Solutions at mobile phishing solutions provider Lookout says he is seeing attacks increasing:

There are a large number of fake mobile apps, with many targeting the immediate payday by stealing banking credentials. However, most of these apps do not make it to public app stores. Users are often taken to websites that mirror real sites to download fake apps.
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