(ANSA) – MILAN, 23 FEB – The number of cyber attacks against smartphones will drop in 2021 but the complexity of threats is growing. In its latest Mobile Threats Report 2021, the security agency Kaspersky highlighted a steady increase in the danger of the strategies that criminals use to hack into users’ phones, especially to steal financial information. This compared to a decrease in mobile attacks in general, which went from 63 million in 2020 to 46 million recorded in 2021. Last year, according to experts, the number of malicious programs capable of executing commands remotely, the so-called ‘ trojans’, which act on the smartphone without the real owner noticing it, to send information and move currencies to other accounts. In 2021, Kaspersky detected more than 95,000 new mobile banking Trojans. In Italy, 0.29% of the people surveyed, who use a Kaspersky protection app, have been victims of breach and theft. “There have been fewer mobile attacks in general, but the ones detected are more complex and more difficult to intercept,” said Tatyana Shishkova, security researcher at Kaspersky. “Cybercriminals tend to disguise malicious apps under the guise of legitimate applications, and with mobile banking becoming more and more prevalent, the chances of profitable hacking have multiplied considerably.” In our country, a total of 209,482 attacks targeting mobile phones were recorded, for a total of 28,131 users affected. The most widespread threat involved adware (44%), software that displays ads in an intrusive way, followed by malware (40%) and RiskWare (15%), legitimate programs that can cause harm if they are exploited by malicious users for the purpose of delete, lock, modify or copy data. Kaspersky identifies in “Sova” one of the main banking trojans that emerged in 2021. This is able to steal the usage history of infected devices, thus gaining access to the accounts of mobile banking applications, without necessarily knowing the login credentials. Cybercriminals also targeted gamers last year. Experts speak of a “gamethief” Trojan, that is capable of entering the most famous games to transfer or sell prizes and digital coins and immediately earn from theft. One of the most affected video games was the mobile version of PlayerUnknwon’s Battlegrounds PUBG, a title similar to the famous Fortnite. (HANDLE).
Source: Ansa
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