Last week in security news, researchers found a new clicker malware called “Tekya” hidden within 24 children’s games on the Google Play store. Mobile users weren’t the only ones targeted by malicious software last week, however. Malware campaigns targeting vulnerable network-attached storage (NAS) devices, industrial environments and banking customers in Germany also came to light.
Top Story of the Week: Google Play Infiltrated by Tekya Clicker Malware
Researchers at Check Point noted that a new malware family called “Tekya” had made its way into 56 apps available for download on Google Play with a combined total of 1 million downloads worldwide. Over half (32) of those affected apps were utilities such as cooking programs, calculators, downloaders and translators. The remaining 24 apps were games designed for children.
Upon successful installation, Tekya set about to commit mobile ad fraud. It did this by imitating a user’s actions to click on ads and banners from Google’s AdMob, Facebook and other agencies.
Also in Security News
- 2FA Bypass Incorporated by Trickbot Campaign Targeting German Users: Researchers at IBM X-Force observed attackers pushing an Android app called “TrickMo” in Germany. Delivered by the Trickbot Trojan, this program bypassed two-factor authentication (2FA) measures to steal German users’ banking credentials.
- Milum Distributed in WildPressure Operation Targeting the Middle East: Kaspersky Lab detected a new advanced persistent threat (APT) operation called “WildPressure” spreading a fully functional Trojan written in C++. This malware, originally named “Milum46_Win32.exe,” stole information off of a victim’s device and exfiltrated it to its command-and-control (C&C) server.
- Vulnerable NAS Devices Targeted by Mukashi Mirai Variant: Researchers at Palo Alto Networks spotted a new variant of Mirai called “Mukashi” leveraging brute-force attacks to target NAS products from Zyxel running firmware 5.21. Mukashi’s purpose behind those attacks was to compromise those devices, enlist them into a botnet and potentially conduct distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
- Oski Infostealer Seeded by New DNS Hijacking Campaign: According to Bitdefender, malicious actors set their sights on users’ home routers in order to change their DNS settings so that they could redirect users to a malicious website. The campaign leveraged payloads hosted via Bitbucket to spread samples of Oski malware.
- Google Drive Used by Downloader to Spread Advanced Malware: The Zscaler ThreatLabZ team witnessed a spam campaign using various email templates to target people in various countries around the world. That campaign, in turn, distributed Win32.Downloader.EdLoader, a downloader that delivered its final malware payload via Google Drive.
Security Tip of the Week: Strengthen Your Organization’s Mobile Security
Security professionals can help organizations strengthen their mobile security posture by investing in capabilities that can analyze suspicious behavior on corporate mobile devices and correlate it with intelligence into how digital threats normally function. Solutions that use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are a good place to start.
Additionally, infosec personnel should pursue mobile security best practices by implementing patches on a regular basis, restricting the sources from which mobile users can download apps and enforcing a robust password management strategy.