Mobile Payments Expansion Attracting Cyber Criminals
Global mobile payments are projected to surpass $1.3 trillion in the coming years, creating a vast opportunity for exploitation by gangs of cybercriminals motivated by the innate weaknesses in the mobile device marketplace, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). “On one hand we can see just one example of a major European bank that in early 2012 had 100,000 mobile banking users, and by April 2013, 4 million,” says APWG’s Jart Armin. “In contrast, there were around 50 generally known samples of mobile malware in 2010, rising in 2013 to some 30,000 samples.” APWG is urging a global, coordinated response to the mobile malware threat and the criminal underground encouraged by the expansion in mobile payments and banking. The organization has released a white paper defining the malware markets and showing the methodology of an emergent underground economy. Malware and attack techniques being analyzed include Trojans, spyware, worms, phishing direct attacks, apps delivered via malware, pocket botnets, and blended attacks, many of which are created to steal users’ money.
From “Mobile Payments Expansion Spawning Criminal Underground”
Finextra (05/16/13)