Chinese virus hits Android smartphones users receive a text message that if opened installs malware that steals banking credentials
If you’re in China, or plan to go there, you should pay special attention to your bank account. It’s not a matter of cost, but of cybersecurity. As experts from Check Point, a company specializing in cybersecurity, report, users’ banking data continues to be threatened by a dangerous malware.
The virus hits through a simple SMS. Once penetrated on the victim’s device, the malicious program gets hold of bank account login credentials and other personal information. The most worrying aspect is the strategy used by the hackers, which is difficult to detect and especially to block. The message, which contains a link to the banking malware, is sent using fake cellular stations, which are hidden under the names of the two main Chinese phone providers: China Mobile and China Unicom. This way, users are led to believe that the SMS messages are actually trustworthy.
How Swearing Trojan Affects
The new phishing attempt discovered in China has targeted millions of Android users, who have been affected in a sneaky way. The message received by the victims contains a URL, which, if opened, installs the malware on the mobile devices of the unfortunate ones. At this point, the malicious program replaces the Android SMS application with another fraudulent one, which will serve hackers to intercept all messages sent and received by users. This includes even those that contain banking information. And that’s not all. The malware, known as Swearing Trojan, also accesses the list of contacts in the phone book, to whom the malicious software sends other fraudulent SMS messages.
Time access codes intercepted
The virus is scary especially because it takes possession of users’ banking credentials. Among the intercepted SMS there are, in fact, the 2FA, acronym that identifies the two steps authentication. System that allows banks to send its customers a time-based access code. According to Check Point, the Trojan is also responsible for other scams and always using the same SMS system. In some messages it asks you to click on links to download documents, embarrassing photos of your wife or hot videos of celebrities. Obviously, these are all decoys to bait users.