[infomercial]For the most popular operating system in the world—which is Android and it isn’t even a contest—there’s a sneaky cyberthreat that can empty out a person’s bank accounts to fill the illicit coffers of cybercriminals.

These are “Android banking trojans,” and, according to our 2024 ThreatDown State of Malware report, Malwarebytes detected an astonishing 88,500 of them last year alone.

While the 2024 ThreatDown State of Malware report focuses heavily on the corporate security landscape today, make no mistake: Android banking trojans pose a serious threat to everyday users. They are well-disguised, hard to detect in regular use, and are a favorite hacking tool for cybercriminals who want to automate the theft of online funds for themselves.

What are Android banking trojans?

By masquerading as everyday mobile apps for things like QR code readers, fitness trackers, and productivity or photography tools, Android banking trojans intercept a person’s online interest in one app, and instead deliver a malicious tool that cybercriminals can abuse later on.

Instead, what makes Android banking trojans so tricky is that, once installed, they present legitimate-looking permissions screens that ask users to grant the new app all sorts of access to their device, under the guise of improving functionality.

As we wrote in the 2024 ThreatDown State of Malware report:

“Once it has accessibility permissions, the malware initializes its Automated TransferSystem (ATS) framework, a complex set of scripts and commands designed to perform automated banking transactions without user intervention. The ATS framework uses the harvested credentials to initiate unauthorized money transfers to accounts held by the attacker. This mimics real user behavior to bypass fraud detection systems.”

Staying safe from Android banking trojans

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A Maryland firm that oversees the nation’s largest independent network of primary care medical practices is facing a whistleblower lawsuit alleging it cheated Medicare out of millions of dollars using billing software “rigged” to make patients appear sicker than they were.

The civil suit alleges that Aledade Inc.’s billing apps and other software and guidance provided to doctors improperly boosted revenues by adding overstated medical diagnoses to patients’ electronic medical records.

“Aledade did whatever it took to make patients appear sicker than they were,” according to the suit.

Based in Bethesda, Maryland, Aledade helps manage independent primary care clinics and medical offices in more than 40 states, serving some 2 million people.

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“Three recent FTC enforcement actions reflect a heightened focus on pervasive extraction and mishandling of consumers’ sensitive personal data. Proposed Settlements with Avast X-Mode and InMarket. In mid February, the FTC announced a proposed settlement to resolve allegations that Avast, a security software company, unfairly sold consumers’ granular and re-identifiable browsing information—information that Avast amassed through its antivirus software and browser extensions after telling consumers that Avast’s software would protect their privacy, and that any disclosure of their browsing information would only be in aggregate and anonymous form. In January of this year, the FTC announced …[from the FTC Tech blog … ]

https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy-research/tech-at-ftc

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March 5 (UPI) — The United States has announced sanctions against two people and five entities linked to a commercial spyware consortium, as the Biden administration continues to target the misuse of this growing security threat.On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury blacklisted two executives and three companies associated with Intellexa Consortium, which the federal agency described as “a marketing label for a variety of offensive cyber companies that offer commercial spyware and surveillance tools to enable targeted and mass surveillance campaigns.”

The Treasury blamed the consortium for enabling the proliferation of commercial spyware around the world, including to authoritarian regimes, specifically its Predator spyware, which has been used by foreign actors to surveil U.S. government officials, journalists and policy experts, it said.

“Today’s actions represent a tangible step forward in discouraging the misuse of commercial surveillance tools, which increasingly present a security risk to the United States and our citizens,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement.

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Topic: https://www.upi.com/topic/Technology/

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techradar: “A new study of more than 1,000 remote workers by Beyond Identity has revealed that co-working spaces could actually be costing businesses their cybersecurity despite being cheaper in terms of rent. According to the report, co-working spaces are the most likely place for data to be stolen, with 18% having previously chosen to locate themselves in a co-working office and had their data stolen…

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HARRISBURG — Attorney General Michelle Henry announced that she and forty other Attorneys General have sent a letter to social media giant, Meta, asking for an investigation into the increase of “account takeover” incidents — when hackers lock consumers out of accounts, steal personal information, and post harmful content.In the letter, the Attorneys General present data to show the activity has increased dramatically in recent years — in Pennsylvania, takeovers increased 270 percent from 2022 to 2023 — while asking Meta what it is doing to prevent the takeovers and field complaints from victims.

State Attorneys General have often served as the responsive agency for consumer reports, while Meta customer service has been silent or slow to react.

The increase in account takeovers may be, in part, due to Meta’s recent layoffs of around 11,000 employees, many reportedly from the “security, privacy, and integrity sector.”