New Mobile malware evolution 2018 findings from Kaspersky state that “Users of mobile devices in 2018 faced what could be the strongest cybercriminal onslaught ever seen. In 2018 we recorded a doubling of the number of attacks using malicious mobile software: 116.5 million (against 66.4 million in 2017).” Incidences of mobile banking trojans, dropper trojans, adware and miners were all analyzed. “New records were set in terms of both number of mobile banking Trojans detected and number of attacked users. The root cause of this hike is not clear, but the main culprits are the creators of the Asacub and Hqwar Trojans.”
Expert Comments below:
Sam Bakken, Senior Product Marketing Manager at OneSpan:
“Kaspersky Lab has been tracking this increase in malicious mobile activity for a number of quarters at this point—it’s really no surprise. More people are using mobile banking services and so criminals are incentivized to follow people to the mobile channel and invest time and effort in stealing funds that way. Malware taking advantage of Accessibility Services in Android is also now targeting payments apps such as PayPal. Users don’t have all the tools they need to ensure the security of their mobile devices, and so it’s all the more important for providers of mobile financial services to help users by hardening mobile apps with technology such as mobile app shielding, which can detect and respond to these sorts of attacks (even in compromised devices) before attackers can profit.”
