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Category — banking malware
INTERPOL Arrests 31 in Global Operation, Identifies 1,900+ Ransomware-Linked IPs

INTERPOL Arrests 31 in Global Operation, Identifies 1,900+ Ransomware-Linked IPs

Feb 02, 2024 Cyber Crime / Malware
An INTERPOL-led collaborative operation targeting phishing, banking malware, and ransomware attacks has led to the identification of 1,300 suspicious IP addresses and URLs. The  law enforcement effort , codenamed  Synergia , took place between September and November 2023 in an attempt to blunt the "growth, escalation and professionalization of transnational cybercrime." Involving 60 law enforcement agencies spanning 55 member countries, the exercise paved the way for the detection of more than 1,300 malicious servers, 70% of which have already been taken down in Europe. Hong Kong and Singapore authorities took down 153 and 86 servers, respectively. Servers, as well as electronic devices, were confiscated following over 30 house searches. Seventy suspects have been identified to date, and 31 from Europe, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe have been arrested. Singapore-headquartered Group-IB, which also contributed to the operation,  said  it identified "more than 500 IP addr
U.K. and U.S. Sanction 11 Russia-based TrickBot Cybercrime Gang Members

U.K. and U.S. Sanction 11 Russia-based TrickBot Cybercrime Gang Members

Sep 08, 2023 Cybercrime / Malware
The U.K. and U.S. governments on Thursday sanctioned 11 individuals who are alleged to be part of the notorious Russia-based TrickBot cybercrime gang. "Russia has long been a safe haven for cybercriminals, including the TrickBot group," the U.S. Treasury Department  said , adding it has "ties to Russian intelligence services and has targeted the U.S. Government and U.S. companies, including hospitals." The targets of the sanctions are administrators, managers, developers, and coders who are believed to have provided material assistance in its operations. Their names and roles are as follows - Andrey Zhuykov (aka Adam, Defender, and Dif), senior administrator Maksim Sergeevich Galochkin (aka Bentley, Crypt, Manuel, Max17, and Volhvb), software development and testing Maksim Rudenskiy (aka Binman, Buza, and Silver), team lead for coders Mikhail Tsarev (aka Alexander Grachev, Fr*ances, Ivanov Mixail, Mango, Misha Krutysha, Nikita Andreevich Tsarev, and Super Misha), human resource
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Online Master's in Applied Intelligence

websiteGeorgetown UniversityCyber Security
More than 90% of respondents expressed concern over their team and tooling's ability to detect identity-based attacks. Learn about critical gaps in security programs and what environments pose the most risk to security teams. Download the Report.
Gigabud RAT Android Banking Malware Targets Institutions Across Countries

Gigabud RAT Android Banking Malware Targets Institutions Across Countries

Aug 15, 2023 Mobile Security / Financial Risk
Account holders of over numerous financial institutions in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Peru are being targeted by an Android banking malware called  Gigabud RAT . "One of Gigabud RAT's unique features is that it doesn't execute any malicious actions until the user is authorized into the malicious application by a fraudster, [...] which makes it harder to detect," Group-IB researchers Pavel Naumov and Artem Grischenko  said . "Instead of using HTML overlay attacks, Gigabud RAT gathers sensitive information primarily through screen recording." Gigabud RAT was  first documented  by Cyble in January 2023 after it was spotted impersonating bank and government apps to siphon sensitive data. It's known to be active in the wild since at least July 2022. The Singapore-based company said it also identified a second variant of the malware minus the RAT capabilities. Dubbed Gigabud.Loan, it comes under the guise of a loan application that
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Permiso Security's 2024 State of Identity Security Report

websitePermisoThreat Detection / Identity Security
More than 90% of respondents expressed concern over their team and tooling's ability to detect identity-based attacks. Learn about critical gaps in security programs and what environments pose the most risk to security teams. Download the Report.
New FiXS ATM Malware Targeting Mexican Banks

New FiXS ATM Malware Targeting Mexican Banks

Mar 04, 2023 Banking Security / Cyber Crime
A new ATM malware strain dubbed  FiXS  has been observed targeting Mexican banks since the start of February 2023. "The ATM malware is hidden inside another not-malicious-looking program," Latin American cybersecurity firm Metabase Q  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. Besides requiring interaction via an external keyboard, the Windows-based ATM malware is also vendor-agnostic and is capable of infecting any teller machine that supports  CEN/XFS  (short for eXtensions for Financial Services). The exact mode of compromise remains unknown but Metabase Q's Dan Regalado told The Hacker News that it's likely that "attackers found a way to interact with the ATM via touchscreen." FiXS is also said to be similar to another strain of  ATM malware  codenamed  Ploutus  that has enabled cybercriminals to extract cash from ATMs by using an external keyboard or by  sending an SMS message . One of the notable characteristics of FiXS is its ability to disp
PixPirate: New Android Banking Trojan Targeting Brazilian Financial Institutions

PixPirate: New Android Banking Trojan Targeting Brazilian Financial Institutions

Feb 04, 2023 Mobile Security / Malware
A new Android banking trojan has set its eyes on Brazilian financial institutions to commit fraud by leveraging the PIX payments platform. Italian cybersecurity company Cleafy, which discovered the malware between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, is tracking it under the name PixPirate. "PixPirate belongs to the newest generation of Android banking trojan, as it can perform ATS ( Automatic Transfer System ), enabling attackers to automate the insertion of a malicious money transfer over the instant payment platform PIX, adopted by multiple Brazilian banks," researchers Francesco Iubatti and Alessandro Strino  said . It is also the latest addition in a long list of Android banking malware to abuse the operating system's accessibility services API to carry out its nefarious functions, including disabling Google Play Protect, intercepting SMS messages, preventing uninstallation, and serving rogue ads via push notifications. Besides stealing passwords entered
Dridex Malware Now Attacking macOS Systems with Novel Infection Method

Dridex Malware Now Attacking macOS Systems with Novel Infection Method

Jan 06, 2023 Endpoint Security/ Malware
A variant of the infamous Dridex banking malware has set its sights on Apple's macOS operating system using a previously undocumented infection method, according to latest research. It has "adopted a new technique to deliver documents embedded with malicious macros to users without having to pretend to be invoices or other business-related files," Trend Micro researcher Armando Nathaniel Pedragoza  said  in a technical report. Dridex , also called Bugat and Cridex, is an information stealer that's known to harvest sensitive data from infected machines and deliver and execute malicious modules. It's attributed to an e-crime group known as Evil Corp (aka Indrik Spider). The malware is also considered to be a successor of  Gameover Zeus , itself a follow-up to another banking trojan called Zeus. Previous Dridex campaigns targeting Windows have  leveraged  macro-enabled Microsoft Excel documents sent via phishing emails to deploy the payload. A law enforcement o
Beware: Cybercriminals Launch New BrasDex Android Trojan Targeting Brazilian Banking Users

Beware: Cybercriminals Launch New BrasDex Android Trojan Targeting Brazilian Banking Users

Dec 20, 2022 Banking Malware / Mobile Security
The threat actors behind the Windows banking malware known as Casbaneiro has been attributed as behind a novel Android trojan called  BrasDex  that has been observed targeting Brazilian users as part of an ongoing multi-platform campaign. BrasDex features a "complex keylogging system designed to abuse Accessibility Services to extract credentials specifically from a set of Brazilian targeted apps, as well as a highly capable Automated Transfer System ( ATS ) engine," ThreatFabric  said  in a report published last week. The Dutch security firm said that the command-and-control (C2) infrastructure used in conjunction with BrasDex is also being used to control  Casbaneiro , which is known to strike banks and cryptocurrency services in Brazil and Mexico. The  hybrid Android and Windows malware campaign  is estimated to have resulted in thousands of infections to date. BrasDex, which masquerades as a banking app for Banco Santander, is also emblematic of a new trend that in
This Android File Manager App Infected Thousands of Devices with SharkBot Malware

This Android File Manager App Infected Thousands of Devices with SharkBot Malware

Nov 24, 2022
The Android banking fraud malware known as SharkBot has reared its head once again on the official Google Play Store, posing as file managers to bypass the app marketplace's restrictions. A majority of the users who downloaded the rogue apps are located in the U.K. and Italy, Romanian cybersecurity company Bitdefender  said  in an analysis published this week. SharkBot, first  discovered  towards the end of 2021 by Cleafy, is a  recurring   mobile   threat  distributed both on the Google Play Store and other third-party app stores. One of the trojan's primary goals is to initiate money transfers from compromised devices via a technique called "Automatic Transfer System" ( ATS ), in which a transaction triggered via a banking app is intercepted to swap the payee account with an actor-controlled account in the background. It's also capable of serving a fake login overlay when users attempt to open legitimate banking apps, stealing the credentials in the proce
FBI-Wanted Leader of the Notorious Zeus Botnet Gang Arrested in Geneva

FBI-Wanted Leader of the Notorious Zeus Botnet Gang Arrested in Geneva

Nov 17, 2022
A Ukrainian national who has been wanted by the U.S for over a decade has been arrested by Swiss authorities for his role in a notorious cybercriminal ring that stole millions of dollars from victims' bank accounts using malware called Zeus . Vyacheslav Igorevich Penchukov, who went by online pseu­do­nyms "tank" and "father," is alleged to have been involved in the day-to-day operations of the group. He was apprehended in Geneva on October 23, 2022, and is pending extradition to the U.S. Details of the arrest were  first reported  by independent security journalist Brian Krebs. Penchukov, along with Ivan Viktorovich Klepikov (aka "petrovich" and "nowhere") and Alexey Dmitrievich Bron (aka "thehead"), was originally charged in the District of Nebraska in August 2012. According to court documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) in 2014, Penchukov and eight other members of the cybercriminal group  infected  &qu
Warning: New Massive Malicious Campaigns Targeting Top Indian Banks' Customers

Warning: New Massive Malicious Campaigns Targeting Top Indian Banks' Customers

Nov 10, 2022
Cybersecurity researchers are warning of "massive phishing campaigns" that distribute five different malware targeting banking users in India. "The bank customers targeted include account subscribers of seven banks, including some of the most well-known banks located in the country and potentially affecting millions of customers," Trend Micro  said  in a report published this week. Some of the targeted banks include Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and the State Bank of India (SBI), among others. The infection chains all have a common entry point in that they rely on SMS messages containing a phishing link that urge potential victims to enter their personal details and credit card information to supposedly get a tax refund or gain credit card reward points. The smishing attacks, which deliver Elibomi, FakeReward, AxBanker, IcRAT, and IcSpy, are just the latest in a series of similar rewards-themed malware campaigns that have been documented by  Microsoft, Cyble , and  K
New Grandoreiro Banking Malware Campaign Targeting Spanish Manufacturers

New Grandoreiro Banking Malware Campaign Targeting Spanish Manufacturers

Aug 20, 2022
Organizations in the Spanish-speaking nations of Mexico and Spain are in the crosshairs of a new campaign designed to deliver the  Grandoreiro  banking trojan.  "In this campaign, the threat actors impersonate government officials from the Attorney General's Office of Mexico City and from the Public Ministry in the form of spear-phishing emails in order to lure victims to download and execute 'Grandoreiro,' a prolific banking trojan that has been active since at least 2016, and that specifically targets users in Latin America," Zscaler  said  in a report. The ongoing attacks, which commenced in June 2022, have been observed to target automotive, civil and industrial construction, logistics, and machinery sectors via multiple infection chains in Mexico and chemicals manufacturing industries in Spain. Attack chains entail leveraging spear-phishing emails written in Spanish to trick potential victims into clicking on an embedded link that retrieves a ZIP archive
Over a Dozen Android Apps on Google Play Store Caught Dropping Banking Malware

Over a Dozen Android Apps on Google Play Store Caught Dropping Banking Malware

Jul 29, 2022
A malicious campaign leveraged seemingly innocuous Android dropper apps on the Google Play Store to compromise users' devices with  banking   malware . These 17 dropper apps, collectively dubbed  DawDropper  by Trend Micro, masqueraded as productivity and utility apps such as document scanners, QR code readers, VPN services, and call recorders, among others. All these apps in question have been removed from the app marketplace. "DawDropper uses Firebase Realtime Database, a third-party cloud service, to evade detection and dynamically obtain a payload download address," the researchers  said . "It also hosts malicious payloads on GitHub." Droppers are apps designed to sneak past Google's Play Store security checks, following which they are used to download more potent and intrusive malware on a device, in this case,  Octo  (Coper),  Hydra ,  Ermac , and  TeaBot . Attack chains involved the DawDropper malware establishing connections with a Firebase Re
New Android Banking Trojan 'Revive' Targeting Users of Spanish Financial Services

New Android Banking Trojan 'Revive' Targeting Users of Spanish Financial Services

Jun 28, 2022
A previously unknown Android banking trojan has been discovered in the wild, targeting users of the Spanish financial services company BBVA. Said to be in its early stages of development, the malware — dubbed  Revive  by Italian cybersecurity firm Cleafy — was first observed on June 15, 2022 and distributed by means of phishing campaigns. "The name Revive has been chosen since one of the functionality of the malware (called by the [threat actors] precisely 'revive') is restarting in case the malware stops working," Cleafy researchers Federico Valentini and Francesco Iubatti  said  in a Monday write-up. Available for download from rogue phishing pages ("bbva.appsecureguide[.]com" or "bbva.european2fa[.]com") as a lure to trick users into downloading the app, the malware impersonates the bank's two-factor authentication (2FA) app and is said to be inspired from open-source spyware called  Teardroid , with the authors tweaking the original so
Latest Mobile Malware Report Suggests On-Device Fraud is on the Rise

Latest Mobile Malware Report Suggests On-Device Fraud is on the Rise

May 31, 2022
An analysis of the mobile threat landscape in 2022 shows that Spain and Turkey are the most targeted countries for malware campaigns, even as a mix of new and existing banking trojans are increasingly targeting Android devices to conduct on-device fraud (ODF). Other frequently targeted countries include Poland, Australia, the U.S., Germany, the U.K., Italy, France, and Portugal. "The most worrying leitmotif is the increasing attention to On-Device Fraud (ODF)," Dutch cybersecurity company ThreatFabric  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Just in the first five months of 2022 there has been an increase of more than 40% in malware families that abuse Android OS to perform fraud using the device itself, making it almost impossible to detect them using traditional fraud scoring engines." Hydra ,  FluBot  (aka Cabassous),  Cerberus ,  Octo , and  ERMAC  accounted for the most active banking trojans based on the number of samples observed during the same
Malware Analysis: Trickbot

Malware Analysis: Trickbot

May 24, 2022
In this day and age, we are not dealing with roughly pieced together, homebrew type of viruses anymore. Malware is an industry, and professional developers are found to exchange, be it by stealing one's code or deliberate collaboration. Attacks are multi-layer these days, with diverse sophisticated software apps taking over different jobs along the attack-chain from initial compromise to ultimate data exfiltration or encryption. The specific tools for each stage are highly specialized and can often be rented as a service, including customer support and subscription models for professional (ab)use. Obviously, this has largely increased both the availability and the potential effectiveness and impact of malware. Sound scary?  Well, it does, but the apparent professionalization actually does have some good sides too. One factor is that certain reused modules commonly found in malware can be used to identify, track, and analyze professional attack software. Ultimately this means that
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