Sharp Increase in Fake Mobile Apps Impersonating Legit Ones

guest · Oct 24, 2019

Sharp Increase in Fake Mobile Apps Impersonating Legit Ones
Consumers don’t vet apps well enough to mitigate mobile threat risk
October 24, 2019
https://threatpost.com/threatlist-fake-mobile-apps-impersonating-legit-ones/149505/

Malicious mobile apps that try to dupe consumers by mimicking reputable apps is a persistent problem that’s on the rise, making an app store’s commitment to security a key factor to consider for mobile users who want to avoid these threats, according to a new report.

The number of blacklisted apps — i.e., those that are known to be malicious and compiled on industry blacklists — increased 20 percent in the second quarter of 2019, from 44,850 to 53,955, according to the Mobile Threat Landscape Q2 report by RiskIQ, released Thursday.
Moreover, the percentage of blacklisted apps relative to the total number of apps known by RiskIQ also increased for the second-straight quarter, jumping from 1.95 percent to 2.1 percent.

Impersonating popular mobile apps is a successful tactic for cybercriminals because people recognize and make instantaneous judgments about visual stimuli, which could fool them into buying a blacklisted or even a “feral” app, Herman told us. RiskIQ uses “feral” to describe apps that researchers observe outside of an app store, which users could encounter on a random website or through an online ad, he said.
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Some of the actions performed by malicious mobile apps include lifting location data from the device; surreptitious video and audio recordings, and exfiltration of call logs, messages, emails, banking information and credentials, he said.
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RiskIQ blog entry: The Q2 2019 Mobile Threat Landscape: Blacklisted Apps Increase 20%, Attackers Target Tax Season, Surveillance Apps Wreak Havoc
RiskIQ’s Q2 2019 Mobile Threat Landscape Report

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