Thursday , 28 March 2024

Think Your Mobile Banking App Is Safe? Think Again! You Could Be In Deep “Svpeng” – Here’s Why

If you have a mobile banking app connected to USAA, Citigroup, American Express, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, TD Bank, JPMorgan Chase, BB&T or Regions Bank, you could be in deep Svpeng. Here’s why.
The above comments are edited excerpts from an article* by Shah Gilani (WallStreetInsightsAndIndictments.com) entitled Beware: Russian Worm Burrows Into Our Mobile Banking.
Gilani goes on to say in further edited excerpts:
If you think your mobile banking app is safe, think again. The above mentioned Svpeng is a breed of malware that targets your mobile device. It doesn’t come from your bank, but gets onto your device through a “social engineering” campaign that uses text messages as a medium of infection. To know how to avoid it, I’ll tell you exactly how this worm turns.
Once on your phone, Svpeng looks for an app from one of the banking institutions identified above. If it finds an app associated with one of the banks mentioned above, it locks your screen with…a supposed FBI penalty notification letter, complete with a picture of you taken with your own phone and displays it…demanding that you send it $200 in Green Dot MoneyPak cards….While it locks your screen, it’s thoughtful enough to suggest stores where you can buy MoneyPak vouchers and, of course, provides a data field into which you can type the voucher numbers.
Svpeng does not currently steal online banking credentials, though it is believed that it’s only a matter of time before the worm does so, according to Moscow-based computer security company Kaspersky Lab, who also say that research has determined that:
  • the malware also contains code that could be used to encrypt files stored on your device and demand money to unencrypt them.
  • once your device is infected, it’s almost impossible to get it out and
  • if a mobile device doesn’t have proper mobile security in place it is virtually impossible to repel an attack of American Svpeng
You’ve been warned.
I suggest you call your bank and ask them if they have a solution. Maybe they’re working on something you can download that hides their app from being identified by Svpeng.
Good luck, and by the way – smile – your phone may be about to take your picture!
Editor’s Note: The author’s views and conclusions in the above article are unaltered and no personal comments have been included to maintain the integrity of the original post. Furthermore, the views, conclusions and any recommendations offered in this article are not to be construed as an endorsement of such by the editor.
*http://www.wallstreetinsightsandindictments.com/2014/06/beware-russian-worm-burrows-mobile-banking/ (©2014 Monument Street Publishing. All Rights Reserved.)

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One comment

  1. Can anyone else imagine that one or more Banking apps that could lead to a RUSH on PM’s because the US$ gets caught up in a online banking panic that leaves investors worried about holding US$ in flat (paper) money?