Smartphone- have for some time become the main method by which many people manage the money they have in their bank accounts, or by which they make mobile payments. This evolution, compared to the classic method of constantly visiting the bank, also comes with many risks, some of which have already been encountered in the case of using banking services from the computer.
Now those risks are moving to the smartphone, and a recent study claims that a third of users can very easily become victims of banking malware. We are talking here about a study that tricked some users into using a fake interface for the banking application on the phone, through which all the data needed to log into the account could be stolen.
Smartphone – banking malware is becoming a real danger
40.000 people participated in this study in 12 countries, and the number of those who could be fooled with fake interfaces for real applications is high enough that we can talk about a real problem. Banks have solved problems of this kind on computers with the generation of login codes in websites, but on phones the situation is more complicated.
"We are seeing a steady increase in the number of malicious applications for Android devices that are able to bypass security checks on popular app stores and make their way onto consumers' phones. Often, they pose as gaming and lifestyle apps and use social engineering tactics to trick users into downloading them."
Unfortunately, on smartphones we have to be very careful which applications we use, especially if you use Android, because things are much harder to fake on the iPhone. There is still good news on the iPhone and some Android applications, because systems based on biometric security should not share confidential information with unknown applications.
