McAfee publishes its annual report 2020, which reveals the latest knowledge about mobile malware and attacks on smartphones. McAfee researchers have found that hackers are making their attacks more insidious, making them more difficult to identify and counter.
Games Targeted By Hackers
Cyber criminals exploit the popularity of gaming apps by spreading malware links in popular gamer chat apps and creating their own content with links to fake apps. These apps disguise themselves with amazingly real-looking symbols, but display unwanted advertisements and collect user data. McAfee researchers discovered that popular applications like FaceApp have fake versions designed to get user data from young consumers.
McAfee researchers have also uncovered new information about mobile malware, also known as shoppers. This malware uses Android’s access settings to create accounts, download applications and post reviews using names and emails configured on the person’s device. Applications based on distributed via social media, gaming platforms, malvertising and gamer chat applications.
Theft Of Sensitive Data By Traffic Apps
A number of traffic apps have been compromised with a fake program library and a plug-in that could steal confidential files. This attack gave criminals direct access to the developer’s Google Play account. The app offers a range of information for each region, such as bus stop locations, route maps and schedule times. It is a completely new attack method in which hackers attack well-known apps from official stores.
Mobile devices are extremely lucrative for cyber criminals, because consumers spend most of their time there today. McAfee found that hidden apps are the most common threat to consumers and triggered almost 50 percent of all malicious activity this year. These apps exploit unsuspecting consumers in a variety of ways, including trick users with third-party login services or display unwanted advertisements.
