Banks warn of malware attacking accounts

More than 60 banking and social networking applications are now targets of Red Alert 2.0 malware.

Recently, many banks such as Vietcombank, PV Bank, Maritime Bank... simultaneously sent notifications to customers about the Red Alert 2.0 malware. Accordingly, the attack target of this malware is applications installed on mobile devices using the Android operating system, especially online banking applications (Internet Banking, Mobile Banking...)

Red Alert 2.0 is capable of impersonating online banking applications and changing the content of the applications to steal access information, collect contact lists. In addition, this malware can also intercept, eavesdrop on calls, and view the content of messages on the phone.

Customers may have their bank account information stolen if infected with Red Alert 2.0 malware.

According to banks, users can be infected with this malware through popular applications such as Whatsapp, Viber... from unofficial third-party application stores or integrated as fake flash player updates, junk applications imitating legitimate applications on Google Play Store... In particular, the malware is easy to install and operate without user permission on jailbroken devices (Jailbreak, Root).

After successful infection, Red Alert 2.0 will wait for the user to open the Mobile Banking application. If it detects that this is the application it is imitating, the malware will fake the interface and display over the running Mobile Banking application interface, report an error and ask the user to log in again.

At the same time, it will record and send login information to hackers to make illegal transactions. Red Alert 2.0 can easily bypass 2-factor authentication technologies through the feature of blocking messages on infected mobile devices.

Therefore, banks recommend that customers only download applications from official stores, Google Play Store for Android and App Store for iOS, to avoid the risk of malware infection. Customers should download anti-virus applications from reputable suppliers and be wary of questions asking for personal information and service access information.

In addition, customers should not use jailbroken mobile devices (Jailbreak, Root) to access electronic banking services.

According to VNE