Info-tech

As mobile transactions rise, hackers see mobile phones as a lucrative target

KV Kurmanath Hyderabad | Updated on May 23, 2020 Published on May 23, 2020

Number of malicious mobile trojan files reaches shoots up in Q1

As more and more people go for digital transactions on their mobile devices, hackers seem to have increased their focus on these transactions.

With the nationwide lockdown and working-from-home making people spend more time at home and using mobile devices for various payments, one has to be more careful while accessing the financial apps, including the banking windows, cyber security experts said.

Steep rise

The number of mobile trojans has seen a sharp increase in the first quarter of 2020. Cyber security experts noticed 42,115 files of malicious software in the first quarter, which is two-and-half times more than the number in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The mobile banking trojans are a well-known threat in the cyber-community. Used to steal funds directly from mobile bank accounts, these malicious programmes can make you mistake them for a legitimate financial app.

“When a victim tries to access their genuine bank app and enter their security credentials, the attackers gain access to that information as the mobile is already infected with the malware,” Victor Chebyshev, a security expert at Kaspersky, has said.

In the first quarter of this year, the cyber security solutions firm detected over 42,000 modifications of various families of banking trojans, the highest level recorded in last 18 months. “In the age of social distancing and lockdown, we are all using our mobile devices more often to use financial services,” Victor Chebyshev pointed out.

How to be safe?

To reduce the risk of your device being infected by banking trojans, he advised the users to install applications only from trusted sources.

The users are also advised to use cyber security solutions to protect the device from malicious software.

Published on May 23, 2020

A letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.

Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.

In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.

We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.

But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.

I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.

A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!

Sincerely,

Support Quality Journalism
digital payments
  1. Comments will be moderated by The Hindu Business Line editorial team.
  2. Comments that are abusive, personal, incendiary or irrelevant cannot be published.
  3. Please write complete sentences. Do not type comments in all capital letters, or in all lower case letters, or using abbreviated text. (example: u cannot substitute for you, d is not 'the', n is not 'and').
  4. We may remove hyperlinks within comments.
  5. Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name, to avoid rejection.
NODWIN Gaming set to host 5th edition of ESL India Premiership 2020
You have read 1 out of 3 free articles for this week. For full access, please subscribe and get unlimited access to all sections.