Hackers have expanded the ways of hiding their attacks, making them difficult to identify and eliminate
2020 to be year of mobile sneak attacks – McAfee. Source: shutterstock.com
Hackers are using hidden mobile apps, third-party login, and counterfeit gaming videos to target consumers, according to McAfee Mobile Threat Report 2020. For comparison, in 2019, hackers targeted mostly consumers with backdoors and mining cryptocurrencies.
McAfee found that hidden apps are the most active mobile threat consumers can face, generating nearly 50% of all malicious activities in 2019. Along with that, hackers keep on targeting consumers through their devices, since the average person worldwide is expected to own 15 connected devices by 2030.
Besides, hackers use the popularity of gaming by sharing their malicious apps via links in popular gamer chat apps. Furthermore, they even distribute cheat video content containing links to fake apps. McAfee researchers uncovered that popular apps like FaceApp, Spotify, and Call of Duty have fake versions trying to prey on the consumers.
The study unveiled that new mobile malware, called LeifAccess, uses third-party sign-on to cheat app ranking systems. This malware takes advantage of Android features to create accounts, download apps, and post reviews using names and emails configured on the victim’s device.
In addition to that, the researchers discovered that a series of South Korean transit apps were compromised with a fake library and plugin that could exfiltrate confidential files called MalBus.
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