App/Banking security

Addressing the most important mobile app/web security threats:

Overlay attacks: Malware on the mobile device displays a window on top of the genuine banking app that closely resembles the banking app. The malware aims to capture the user’s banking credentials (e.g. username, PIN). Common Android malware families such as Marcher and BankBot are known for such attacks.

Code injection or hooking: Malware attempts to alter the functionality of a mobile banking app. For instance, the app could be modified to log the PIN code of the user, or to manipulate the beneficiary of a financial transaction. Hooking frameworks such as Frida and Xposed are freely available to fraudsters for this.

Keylogging: Malware on the mobile device intercepts keystrokes or gestures in order to steal sensitive data such as PINs.

Interception of SMS messages: SMS messages are intercepted with authentication codes using malware on the user’s phone. This is a popular feature of many Android mobile malware families nowadays.