#1 Trusted Cybersecurity News Platform
Followed by 4.50+ million
The Hacker News Logo
Subscribe – Get Latest News
Cybersecurity

banking malware | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Category — banking malware
Researchers Warn Iranian Users of Widespread SMS Phishing Campaigns

Researchers Warn Iranian Users of Widespread SMS Phishing Campaigns

Dec 02, 2021
Socially engineered SMS messages are being used to install malware on Android devices as part of a widespread phishing campaign that impersonates the Iranian government and social security services to make away with credit card details and steal funds from victims' bank accounts. Unlike other variants of  banking malware  that bank of overlay attacks to capture sensitive data without the knowledge of the victim, the financially motivated operation uncovered by Check Point Research is designed to trick the targets into handing over their credit card information by sending them a legitimate-looking SMS message that contains a link, which, when clicked, downloads a malware-laced app onto their devices. "The malicious application not only collects the victim's credit card numbers, but also gains access to their 2FA authentication SMS, and turn[s] the victim's device into a bot capable of spreading similar phishing SMS to other potential victims," Check Point resear
More Stealthier Version of BrazKing Android Malware Spotted in the Wild

More Stealthier Version of BrazKing Android Malware Spotted in the Wild

Nov 23, 2021
Banking apps from Brazil are being targeted by a more elusive and stealthier version of an Android remote access trojan (RAT) that's capable of carrying out financial fraud attacks by stealing two-factor authentication (2FA) codes and initiating rogue transactions from infected devices to transfer money from victims' accounts to an account operated by the threat actor. IBM X-Force dubbed the revamped banking malware BrazKing , a previous version of which was referred to as  PixStealer  by Check Point Research. The mobile RAT was first seen around November 2018,  according  to ThreatFabric. "It turns out that its developers have been working on making the malware more agile than before, moving its core overlay mechanism to pull fake overlay screens from the command-and-control (C2) server in real-time," IBM X-Force researcher Shahar Tavor  noted  in a technical deep dive published last week. "The malware […] allows the attacker to log keystrokes, extract the pa
How to Get Going with CTEM When You Don't Know Where to Start

How to Get Going with CTEM When You Don't Know Where to Start

Oct 04, 2024Vulnerability Management / Security Posture
Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) is a strategic framework that helps organizations continuously assess and manage cyber risk. It breaks down the complex task of managing security threats into five distinct stages: Scoping, Discovery, Prioritization, Validation, and Mobilization. Each of these stages plays a crucial role in identifying, addressing, and mitigating vulnerabilities - before they can be exploited by attackers.  On paper, CTEM sounds great . But where the rubber meets the road – especially for CTEM neophytes - implementing CTEM can seem overwhelming. The process of putting CTEM principles into practice can look prohibitively complex at first. However, with the right tools and a clear understanding of each stage, CTEM can be an effective method for strengthening your organization's security posture.  That's why I've put together a step-by-step guide on which tools to use for which stage. Want to learn more? Read on… Stage 1: Scoping  When you're defin
UBEL is the New Oscorp — Android Credential Stealing Malware Active in the Wild

UBEL is the New Oscorp — Android Credential Stealing Malware Active in the Wild

Jul 28, 2021
An Android malware that was observed abusing accessibility services in the device to hijack user credentials from European banking applications has morphed into an entirely new botnet as part of a renewed campaign that began in May 2021. Italy's CERT-AGID, in late January, disclosed details about  Oscorp , a mobile malware developed to attack multiple financial targets with the goal of stealing funds from unsuspecting victims. Its features include the ability to intercept SMS messages and make phone calls, and carry out overlay attacks for more than 150 mobile applications by making use of lookalike login screens to siphon valuable data. The malware was distributed through malicious SMS messages, with the attacks often conducted in real-time by posing as bank operators to dupe targets over the phone and surreptitiously gain access to the infected device via WebRTC protocol and ultimately conduct unauthorized bank transfers. While no new activities were reported since then, it a
cyber security

The State of SaaS Security 2024 Report

websiteAppOmniSaaS Security / Data Security
Learn the latest SaaS security trends and discover how to boost your cyber resilience. Get your free…
70 European and South American Banks Under Attack By Bizarro Banking Malware

70 European and South American Banks Under Attack By Bizarro Banking Malware

May 18, 2021
A financially motivated cybercrime gang has unleashed a previously undocumented banking trojan, which can steal credentials from customers of 70 banks located in various European and South American countries. Dubbed " Bizarro " by Kaspersky researchers, the Windows malware is "using affiliates or recruiting money mules to operationalize their attacks, cashing out or simply to helping [sic] with transfers." The campaign consists of multiple moving parts, chief among them being the ability to trick users into entering two-factor authentication codes in fake pop-up windows that are then sent to the attackers, as well as its reliance on social engineering lures to convince visitors of banking websites into downloading a malicious smartphone app. Bizarro, which uses compromised WordPress, Amazon, and Azure servers to host the malware, is distributed via MSI packages downloaded by victims from sketchy links in spam emails. Launching the package downloads a ZIP archiv
Attention! FluBot Android Banking Malware Spreads Quickly Across Europe

Attention! FluBot Android Banking Malware Spreads Quickly Across Europe

Apr 28, 2021
Attention, Android users! A banking malware capable of stealing sensitive information is "spreading rapidly" across Europe, with the U.S. likely to be the next target. According to a new analysis by  Proofpoint , the threat actors behind FluBot (aka  Cabassous ) have branched out beyond Spain to target the U.K., Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Poland. The English-language campaign alone has been observed to make use of more than 700 unique domains, infecting about 7,000 devices in the U.K. In addition, German and English-language SMS messages were found being sent to U.S. users from Europe, which Proofpoint suspects could be the result of malware propagating via contact lists stored on compromised phones. A concerted campaign aimed at the U.S. is yet to be detected. FluBot, a nascent entry in the banking trojan landscape, began its operations late last year, with campaigns leveraging the malware infecting more than 60,000 users in Spain, according to an analysis published b
Experts uncover a new Banking Trojan targeting Latin American users

Experts uncover a new Banking Trojan targeting Latin American users

Apr 07, 2021
Researchers on Tuesday revealed details of a new banking trojan targeting corporate users in Brazil at least since 2019 across various sectors such as engineering, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, finance, transportation, and government. Dubbed " Janeleiro " by Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET, the malware aims to disguise its true intent via lookalike pop-up windows that are designed to resemble the websites of some of the biggest banks in the country, including Itaú Unibanco, Santander, Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal, and Banco Bradesco. "These pop-ups contain fake forms, aiming to trick the malware's victims into entering their banking credentials and personal information that the malware captures and exfiltrates to its [command-and-control] servers," ESET researchers Facundo Muñoz and Matías Porolli said in a write-up. This modus operandi is not new to banking trojans. In August 2020, ESET uncovered a Latin American (LATAM) banking trojan call
Italy CERT Warns of a New Credential Stealing Android Malware

Italy CERT Warns of a New Credential Stealing Android Malware

Jan 28, 2021
Researchers have disclosed a new family of Android malware that abuses accessibility services in the device to hijack user credentials and record audio and video. Dubbed " Oscorp " by Italy's CERT-AGID and spotted by  AddressIntel , the malware "induce(s) the user to install an accessibility service with which [the attackers] can read what is present and what is typed on the screen." So named because of the title of the login page of its command-and-control (C2) server, the malicious APK (called "Assistenzaclienti.apk" or "Customer Protection") is  distributed  via a domain named "supportoapp[.]com," which upon installation, requests intrusive permissions to enable the accessibility service and establishes communications with a C2 server to retrieve additional commands. Furthermore, the malware repeatedly reopens the Settings screen every eight seconds until the user turns on permissions for accessibility and device usage stati
AutoHotkey-Based Password Stealer Targeting  US, Canadian Banking Users

AutoHotkey-Based Password Stealer Targeting US, Canadian Banking Users

Dec 29, 2021
Threat actors have been discovered distributing a new credential stealer written in AutoHotkey (AHK) scripting language as part of an ongoing campaign that started early 2020. Customers of financial institutions in the US and Canada are among the primary targets for credential exfiltration, with a specific focus on banks such as Scotiabank, Royal Bank of Canada, HSBC, Alterna Bank, Capital One, Manulife, and EQ Bank. Also included in the list is an Indian banking firm ICICI Bank. AutoHotkey  is an open-source custom scripting language for Microsoft Windows aimed at providing easy hotkeys for macro-creation and software automation that allows users to automate repetitive tasks in any Windows application. The multi-stage infection chain commences with a malware-laced Excel file that's embedded with a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)  AutoOpen  macro, which is subsequently used to drop and execute the downloader client script ("adb.ahk") via a legitimate portable AHK
Watch Out! New Android Banking Trojan Steals From 112 Financial Apps

Watch Out! New Android Banking Trojan Steals From 112 Financial Apps

Nov 10, 2020
Four months after security researchers uncovered a " Tetrade " of four Brazilian banking Trojans targeting financial institutions in Brazil, Latin America, and Europe, new findings show that the criminals behind the operation have expanded their tactics to infect mobile devices with spyware. According to Kaspersky's Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT), the Brazil-based threat group Guildma has deployed " Ghimob ," an Android banking Trojan targeting financial apps from banks, fintech companies, exchanges, and cryptocurrencies in Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Germany, Angola, and Mozambique. "Ghimob is a full-fledged spy in your pocket: once infection is completed, the hacker can access the infected device remotely, completing the fraudulent transaction with the victim's smartphone, so as to avoid machine identification, security measures implemented by financial institutions and all their anti-fraud behavioral systems," the cybersecur
TrickBot Linux Variants Active in the Wild Despite Recent Takedown

TrickBot Linux Variants Active in the Wild Despite Recent Takedown

Oct 28, 2020
Efforts to disrupt TrickBot may have  shut down  most of its critical infrastructure, but the operators behind the notorious malware aren't sitting idle. According to new findings shared by cybersecurity firm  Netscout , TrickBot's authors have moved portions of their code to Linux in an attempt to widen the scope of victims that could be targeted. TrickBot, a financial Trojan first detected in 2016, has been traditionally a Windows-based crimeware solution, employing different modules to perform a wide range of malicious activities on target networks, including credential theft and perpetrate ransomware attacks. But over the past few weeks, twin efforts led by the US Cyber Command and Microsoft have helped to  eliminate 94%  of TrickBot's command-and-control (C2) servers that were in use and the new infrastructure the criminals operating TrickBot attempted to bring online to replace the previously disabled servers. Despite the steps taken to impede TrickBot, Microsof
QakBot Banking Trojan Returned With New Sneaky Tricks to Steal Your Money

QakBot Banking Trojan Returned With New Sneaky Tricks to Steal Your Money

Aug 27, 2020
A notorious banking trojan aimed at stealing bank account credentials and other financial information has now come back with new tricks up its sleeve to target government, military, and manufacturing sectors in the US and Europe, according to new research. In an analysis released by Check Point Research today, the latest wave of Qbot activity appears to have dovetailed with the return of Emotet — another email-based malware behind several botnet-driven spam campaigns and ransomware attacks — last month, with the new sample capable of covertly gathering all email threads from a victim's Outlook client and using them for later malspam campaigns. "These days Qbot is much more dangerous than it was previously — it has an active malspam campaign which infects organizations, and it manages to use a 'third-party' infection infrastructure like Emotet's to spread the threat even further," the cybersecurity firm said . Using Hijacked Email Threads as Lures
New Android Malware Now Steals Passwords For Non-Banking Apps Too

New Android Malware Now Steals Passwords For Non-Banking Apps Too

Jul 16, 2020
Cybersecurity researchers today uncovered a new strain of banking malware that targets not only banking apps but also steals data and credentials from social networking, dating, and cryptocurrency apps—a total of 337 non-financial Android applications on its target list. Dubbed " BlackRock " by ThreatFabric researchers, which discovered the trojan in May, its source code is derived from a leaked version of Xerxes banking malware, which itself is a strain of the LokiBot Android banking trojan that was first observed during 2016-2017. Chief among its features are stealing user credentials, intercepting SMS messages, hijacking notifications, and even recording keystrokes from the targeted apps, in addition to being capable of hiding from antivirus software. "Not only did the [BlackRock] Trojan undergo changes in its code, but also comes with an increased target list and has been ongoing for a longer period," ThreatFabric said. "It contains an important nu
4 Dangerous Brazilian Banking Trojans Now Trying to Rob Users Worldwide

4 Dangerous Brazilian Banking Trojans Now Trying to Rob Users Worldwide

Jul 15, 2020
Cybersecurity researchers on Tuesday detailed as many as four different families of Brazilian banking trojans that have targeted financial institutions in Brazil, Latin America, and Europe. Collectively called the "Tetrade" by Kaspersky researchers, the malware families — comprising Guildma, Javali, Melcoz, and Grandoreiro — have evolved their capabilities to function as a backdoor and adopt a variety of obfuscation techniques to hide its malicious activities from security software. "Guildma, Javali, Melcoz and Grandoreiro are examples of yet another Brazilian banking group/operation that has decided to expand its attacks abroad, targeting banks in other countries," Kaspersky said in an analysis . "They benefit from the fact that many banks operating in Brazil also have operations elsewhere in Latin America and Europe, making it easy to extend their attacks against customers of these financial institutions." A Multi-Stage Malware Deployment Process
New Android Malware Steals Banking Passwords, Private Data and Keystrokes

New Android Malware Steals Banking Passwords, Private Data and Keystrokes

Apr 30, 2020
A new type of mobile banking malware has been discovered abusing Android's accessibility features to exfiltrate sensitive data from financial applications, read user SMS messages, and hijack SMS-based two-factor authentication codes. Called "EventBot" by Cybereason researchers, the malware is capable of targeting over 200 different financial apps, including banking, money transfer services, and crypto-currency wallets such as Paypal Business, Revolut, Barclays, CapitalOne, HSBC, Santander, TransferWise, and Coinbase. "EventBot is particularly interesting because it is in such early stages," the researchers said. "This brand new malware has real potential to become the next big mobile malware, as it is under constant iterative improvements, abuses a critical operating system feature, and targets financial applications." The campaign, first identified in March 2020, masks its malicious intent by posing as legitimate applications (e.g., Adobe Fl
TrickBot Mobile App Bypasses 2‐Factor Authentication for Net Banking Services

TrickBot Mobile App Bypasses 2‐Factor Authentication for Net Banking Services

Mar 25, 2020
The malware authors behind TrickBot banking Trojan have developed a new Android app that can intercept one-time authorization codes sent to Internet banking customers via SMS or relatively more secure push notifications, and complete fraudulent transactions. The Android app, called " TrickMo " by IBM X-Force researchers, is under active development and has exclusively targeted German users whose desktops have been previously infected with the TrickBot malware. "Germany is one of the first attack turfs TrickBot spread to when it first emerged in 2016," IBM researchers said. "In 2020, it appears that TrickBot's vast bank fraud is an ongoing project that helps the gang monetize compromised accounts." The name TrickMo is a direct reference to a similar kind of Android banking malware called ZitMo that was developed by Zeus cybercriminal gang in 2011 to defeat SMS-based two-factor authentication. The development is the latest addition in the ars
Russian Hacker Behind NeverQuest Banking Malware Gets 4 Years in U.S. Prison

Russian Hacker Behind NeverQuest Banking Malware Gets 4 Years in U.S. Prison

Nov 22, 2019
A Russian hacker who created and used Neverquest banking malware to steal money from victims' bank accounts has finally been sentenced to 4 years in prison by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Stanislav Vitaliyevich Lisov , 34, was arrested by Spanish authorities at Barcelona–El Prat Airport in January 2017 on the request of the FBI and extradited to the United States in 2018. Earlier this year, Lisov pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking, involving attempts to steal at least $4.4 million from hundreds of victims using the NeverQuest banking trojan. Just like any other sophisticated banking Trojan, NeverQuest , aka Vawtrak or Snifula, has also been designed to let attackers remotely control infected computers and steal a wide range of sensitive information. Besides stealing login information for banking or other financial accounts using a keylogger or web form injection techniques, the malware was also c
Cerberus: A New Android 'Banking Malware For Rent' Emerges

Cerberus: A New Android 'Banking Malware For Rent' Emerges

Aug 13, 2019
After a few popular Android Trojans like  Anubis ,  Red Alert 2.0 ,  GM bot , and Exobot, quit their malware-as-a-service businesses, a new player has emerged on the Internet with similar capabilities to fill the gap, offering Android bot rental service to the masses. Dubbed " Cerberus ," the new remote access Trojan allows remote attackers to take total control over the infected Android devices and also comes with banking Trojan capabilities like the use of overlay attacks, SMS control, and contact list harvesting. According to the author of this malware, who is surprisingly social on Twitter and mocks security researchers and antivirus industry openly, Cerberus has been coded from scratch and doesn't re-use any code from other existing banking Trojans. The author also claimed to be using the Trojan for private operations for at least two years before renting it out for anyone interested from the past two months at $2000 for 1 month usage, $7000 for 6 months and
Expert Insights / Articles Videos
Cybersecurity Resources