Hackers Target Bank Clients in Russia, their Global Cyber-Raid Plans Thwarted

The Ministry of Interiors in Russia recently declared that 20 people were arrested after raids were conducted in connection with a malware attack known as "Cron" via which bank accounts of victims were emptied.

According to Group-IB a security firm in Russia, the raids were able to foil plans of running the attack in other countries such as France, Germany, Great Britain, USA, Australia, Singapore and Turkey. As per the ministry, the Cron onslaught amassed 50m roubles (approximately USD 883,000) a comparatively trivial sum suggesting the attackers failed to take the campaign to full swing.

A total of sixteen Russian hackers forming the group called "Cron" following the malicious code they employed in their attacks, camouflaged their program as porn web-clients and phony banking apps. If owners of Android within Russia worked with search engines, the ensuing hits would produce the phony applications.

Cron group's key members were taken into custody November 22, 2016 prior to their waging assaults outside Russia. However as per Group-IB investigating the assault in coordination with Interior Ministry of Russia, Cron hackers contaminated over 1m smart-phones inside the country to the tune of 3,500 phones daily. Digitaltrends.com posted this, May 22, 2017.

Understandably, Cron attackers aimed at clients of 'Sberbank' a lender of the state, as well as stole money out of A/Cs at Qiwi an online payment firm, and Alfa Bank. This they did after exploiting vulnerabilities within transfer services of SMS texts of the firm and bank.

Reportedly, once Cron is loaded onto unwitting users' phones, the attackers would dispatch text messages out of those devices directing banks towards making cash transfers into the hackers' controlled accounts. Malware researcher Lukas Stefanko at Slovakia-based ESET a cyber security company outlined how the situation depicted text messaging as dangerous during mobile banking.

Mobile banking is getting popular in developing countries as also within the countryside the places with difficulty in accessing traditional banking services by the common people. These people find mobile banking an easy and quick means without the requirement for going to a bank. Nevertheless, it is always necessary that security be prominent over consumer convenience.

» SPAMfighter News - 5/25/2017