This Trojan virus steals from bank accounts

Cybercriminals never stop exploring their opportunities to commit fraud and steal without having serious consequences. In that regard, Mexican authorities warned this April about a Trojan virus that is stealing bank details of its victims.

Through an official statement, the Directorate of Digital Evidence Analysis and Computer Forensic (DAEDIF) of the Attorney General's Office, said that malware was hovering among netizens in Mexico and that they should be especially careful when receiving suspicious messages.

The specialists said that “it is a virus that is installed on any type of electronic device such as cell phones, laptops and tablets, by means of downloads that are performed involuntarily or accidentally”.

Because devices can be infected without the user noticing what is happening, they need to take special care of contaminated attachments or links that are received via email, hidden downloads that occur when visiting websites or when opening a pop-up window with misleading content such as advertising.

When the banking Trojan has been installed without user caution, it detects when the user uses the application or online banking account to redirect them to malicious sites that are almost the same as that of the financial institution, so that they do not notice that it is a copy and enter their credentials. The data entered on the supposedly official page is received by the cybercriminal, who now controls them and can make expenses, transfers and more in the name of the account holder.

“It is important to note that some of these Trojans manage to access the content of text messages, which means that even two-step verification to enter the account can be breached.”

In the face of these frauds, the DAEDIF issues recommendations so that users do not fall into the trap of cybercriminals.

- Be suspicious of messages that ask the user to do something urgently.

- Avoid downloading and installing applications from text messages or emails.

- Avoid clicking on unknown links.

- Keep all electronic devices protected with anti-virus-antimalware.

- Keep two-step verification active in all applications.

- Use a secure password manager.

Although fraud has been recorded in Mexico, everyone should be careful when browsing suspicious pages and remember that attachments should never be downloaded from emails or any other medium that have not been requested, or are waiting, since they are usually “bait” for a virus to be installed. automatically on your computer.

For example, these days it was also alerted by Octo, an intrusive software that embedded in any Google Play Store to control the device at any time without the user's knowledge.

Once infected, attackers take control of the phone, such as stealing passwords from the different banking applications that the user has installed as they enter them.

Octo may go unnoticed as an update in an application. And, if you enter a phone, it opens the door for attackers to do whatever they want with it.

Research by security firm Threat Fabric has revealed how this new malware, a type of bot, is capable of infiltrating applications without being detected by the system. Its automatic operation by disabling Google Play Protect is one of the first attack measures.

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