CC image courtesy of Harland Quarrington
Online banking and mobile operating system (OS) malware saw a marked increase during 2013, according to a TrendLabs study.
The fourth quarter of 2013 saw a 200 per cent increase in the number of banking-related malware incidents.
“Online banking malware took center stage in terms of volume increase. Our number of online banking malware detections reached almost one million by the end of 2013,” TrendLabs said.
The United States and Japan were worst hit by online banking malware due to an increase in online bank threat activities in Japan, the study said, while malware also led to actual monetary loss, with this especially true with ransomware.
“CryptoLocker not only blocked user access to infected computers, it also forced them to buy a decryption tool for US$300 or with cryptocurrencies just to make the problem go away,” TrendLabs said.
The dominance of Android devices in the mobile sector has led to the discovery of the first Android Trojan that infected over one million devices.
“Cybercriminals will continue to exploit the OS’s dominance, as we predict the malicious and high-risk app volume to reach 3 million by the end of this year,” the study said.
According to the study the number malicious and high-risk apps have grown over 300 per cent.
“We were able to download some malicious apps from Google Play that pushed ads that led to fraudulent sites. BlackBerry, in partnership with Trend Micro, also identified and blocked two per cent of repackaged Android apps before they could be sold in BlackBerry World because these were flagged as either “malicious” or “high-risk” apps.”
Cybercriminals also made use of mobile phishing sites, over 76 per cent of which targeted financial institutions.
