Great care. 10 hidden Trojans have been detected in Android apps with up to 1 billion downloads. This is extremely dangerous, as they can steal your money without you realizing it by remaining camouflaged in seemingly harmless apps.
With the passage of time and the digitization of information on mobile phones, users have begun to store all kinds of personal data inside their device. That is why companies like Google must offer a layer of protection in their operating system against any kind of threat, although the truth is that the software of the American company is one of the most vulnerable in the sector and Play Protect is not always effective against malware.
Android between a rock and a hard place
Trojans are extremely dangerous viruses and for this very reason it is advisable to stay away from them as much as possible. However, there are times when the user downloads a malicious application without being aware of this fact and this is where the problem starts.
Now, a report assures that there are ten Trojans that roam freely on Android and that their main mission is to steal money from 639 banking or financial applications , which, together, have one billion downloads in the Google Play Store.
This malware is hidden in programs that appear benign at first glance . This is the case of video games, productivity applications… and the worst thing is that they have a place in the official virtual store of the Internet giant.
The procedure is quite simple. Once the app in question is downloaded, the smartphone is infected and this is when they overlay login pages on banking applications to steal account credentials , as well as carry out monitoring of notifications and even produce financial fraud in the terminal.
Trojans and their victims
The United States is the main target for these Trojans, as it heads the ranking of the most attacked countries, with 121 risk apps . In second place we find the United Kingdom with 55 applications, followed by Italy with 43, Turkey with 34, Australia with 33 and France with 31.
On the other hand, the Trojan that attacks the most programs is known as Teabot, which occupies 410 of the 639 apps tracked. Exobot follows with a group of 324 applications. On the other hand, the software that has experienced attacks with the most downloads is PhonePe, a very popular system in countries like India and that has 100 million.
The most exposed banking app is BBVA , a portal that many Spaniards use every day to carry out operations and that is in the crosshairs of Trojans. In fact, it is the target of up to seven of the ten viruses that we will see below:
- BianLian : attacks Binance, BBVA and a number of Turkish apps.
- Cabassous – Targets Barclays, CommBank, Halifax, Llys and Santander.
- Coper : operates on BBVA, CaixaBank, CommBank and Santander.
- EventBot – accesses data from Barclays, Intensa, BancoPosta and other Italian systems.
- Exobot – One of the largest attacking PayPal, Binance, Cash App, Barclays, BBVA, and CaixaBank.
- FluBot : It is focused on Spain and operates in BBVA, Santander, Caixa and other Spanish apps.
- Medusa: It is one of the best known by the community and also one of the most dangerous. It is aimed at BBVA, CaixaBank, Ziraat and other apps of Turkish origin.
- Sharkbot: attacks applications such as Binance, BBVA and Coinbase.
- TeaBot: Targeting PhonePe, Binance, Barclays, Crypto, Postepay, Bank of America, Capital One, Citi Mobile, and Coinbase.
- Xenomorph: mainly attacks the BBVA app and other banking programs of the European Union.
The best way to keep your Android mobile safe from this kind of threat is to know in advance the application that we are going to download and install one of the many free antiviruses such as AVG. Only then will we avoid an unfortunate accident.
