The Ginp mobile banking malware, which emerged in late 2019, is one of the top most prevalent Android banking malware families today. It started as a simple short message server (SMS) stealer and rapidly evolved into one of the most advanced actors in the financial fraud landscape. Ginp has primarily targeted Spanish banks, but recent evidence suggests the m

In today’s hybrid multicloud environment, users expect to be able to access their work and personal resources from wherever they are, whenever they need them. With this expanded security perimeter, and especially considering this year’s tectonic shift in remote work, organizations need to be prepared with a distributed security strategy that incorporates pri

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, IBM X-Force has observed a more than 6,000 percent increase in COVID-19-related spam, with lures ranging the full gamut of challenges and concerns facing individuals — from phishing emails impersonating the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the WHO to U.S.

The IcedID banking Trojan was discovered by IBM X-Force researchers in 2017. At that time, it targeted banks, payment card providers, mobile services providers, payroll, webmail and e-commerce sites, mainly in the U.S. IcedID has since continued to evolve, and while one of its more recent versions became active in late-2019, X-Force researchers have identifi

IBM X-Force researchers recently analyzed an Android malware app that’s likely being pushed to infected users by the TrickBot Trojan. This app, dubbed “TrickMo” by our team, is designed to bypass strong authentication methods that bank customers use when they need to authorize a transaction. Though it’s not the first of its kind, this

The tax season deadline in the U.S. is April 15, 2020, and that means scammers are officially on the prowl for unsuspecting tax fraud victims. Attackers are utilizing both time-tested and new techniques to collect tax information and personal data from victims and target individual and corporate accounts. No one is immune from tax season risks, and most of u

The video gaming landscape has changed drastically over the past few decades. Some of these changes have led to considerable developments in the cyberthreat landscape as it applies to gaming companies, the games themselves and the user base that enjoys them. Integration of the cloud, mobile apps and social networks, the diversity of games and platforms, th

It would be a challenge to find someone who has not heard of the now-infamous “Nigerian Prince scams,” also known as “419 scams” and “advance-fee scams.” The concept itself dates back to the French Revolution, but it has come a long way due to human gullibility. More recently, it has taken to the internet to deceive scores

The financial malware arena became a mainstream issue a little over a decade ago with the rise of malware like the Zeus Trojan, which at the time was the first commercial banking Trojan available to the cybercrime world. We have come a long way since, and the past decade saw banking Trojans become increasingly sophisticated, specialized and exclusive, operat

The malware discussed in this blog saw input from X-Force researchers Andre Piva and Ofir Ozer. It was initially described in a blog post by X-Force’s Maor Wiesen and Limor Kessem. The IBM Trusteer cybercrime research labs specialize in the detection and counteraction of the crimeware and attacks operated by organized cybercrime gangs. In one of our re

The dictionary definition of trust, according to Merriam-Webster, is the “assured reliance on the … truth of someone or something.” In today’s digital world, trust can be a tricky concept. To do business online, whether you are a bank, retailer, insurer, airline or anything else, you must have some degree of trust in your user — trust

Advertising is the life blood of the internet. Some of the world’s biggest and most influential tech companies earn a large chunk of their revenue through harmless and safe advertisements, but some of the most successful cybercriminals also rely on advertising. When good ad networks are tricked into delivering malware, it’s known as malvertising.

Banking is set to significantly change as Payment System Directive 2 (PSD2) regulations are introduced across Europe. In fact, open banking regulations are being considered in a number of regions around the world. The directives will require financial institutions to adopt open banking by safely and securely allowing customers to view account information and

Catfishing, the practice of pretending to be someone else online, became a cultural phenomenon through MTV’s popular TV show “Catfish,” driving more attention to our obsession with our online personas. However, it’s not just social media that needs additional scrutiny. In the wake of several recent major data breaches of personally id

Financial online fraud and the fuel that feeds it has been growing steadily over the past decade, resulting in losses to banks, businesses and individuals, especially with cases of new account fraud (NAF). The challenge online service providers face nowadays is not only an increase in NAF, but also in NAF’s sophistication and the difficulty to detect