Some days ago, researchers have discovered that there is a reduction in the number of hackers in the world. Information from some trusted source indicates that most of these hackers are targeting cell phones to retrieve information about bank accounts. This bank account information is mainly used to gain access into people’s banks account and to steal money from them. As a result of this findings, Kaspersky decided to team up with Interpol to research on this threat. This research came up with results that are very alarming.
The research by Kaspersky indicated that more than 60% of these malicious programs that are targeted on android devices are specifically designed for stealing banking demographics and people’s money. Androids is known to be the most known smartphone providers, with almost eighty percent of mobile market. However, android is also known to host close to one hundred percent total mobile malware. Hackers are almost very successful in this quest as many android users use their devices in carrying out online transactions. People also use their devices to pay bills. This makes it easy for hackers to access personal information from these people. Transacting online also involves posting your payment and other personal details to some websites. This provide a very good avenue for hackers to obtain personal account information.
According to GagdetsNDTV, it is very easy to explain why cyber criminals come up with malicious programs which mainly target android devices. They say that this is because the use of smartphones for online transactions and merchandise services, which provides a way for hackers to get all information they need to get access to bank account information.
According to Kaspersky, the highest number of people affected by these malicious hackers do reside in Russia. Some other affected countries include Spain, Britain, Malaysia and France. Germany is also not excluded from the list. In the many years that this research has been carried out, a report indicates that about 3.4 million detections occur on monthly basis. This was as from August 2013 to March 2014. The greatest malware threats targeted towards bank accounts are said to have come from ‘Trojan-SMS’ and ‘Trojan-Banker’. This report was derived from the fact that interest in mobile payments is actually growing at a first rate. This has been attributed to the high rate at which people are trying to embrace money security technology. It is therefore very dangerous to transact some services that require the transfer of money by use of mobile phones. Payment of bills as well as online transactions that require bank information to be provided is also dangerous.
Roman Unuchek who is an analyst with Kaspersky said that any successful infection of Trojan-Banker will enable the fraudster to gain access to all the money belonging to the victim. He added that Trojan-SMS is required to infect very many dozens and hundreds of devices before the infectors realize a worthwhile profit. It is therefore advisable that anybody carrying out online transactions that require money and credit card information should be very careful with information they provide.