Russia’s Kaspersky Lab says new virus steals fincl info from Android

MOSCOW, Dec 20 (PRIME) -- A new virus attacking financial applications on Android devices has hit over 16,000 people in 27 countries, Russian antivirus maker Kaspersky Lab said on Tuesday in a statement.

The malware, a new modification of mobile banking Trojan Faketoken, disguises as games and programs, including Adobe Flash Player, and steals information from more than 2,000 financial applications for Android. The bulk of victims were from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and Thailand.

Kaspersky said the new virus can not only block screens of devices by extorting money, but also cypher users’ files.

“The skill to encode information is not typical of a banking Trojan. Most of malware-extorters block the device, not data,” Kaspersky Lab said.

The experts advise users not to give permissions to applications automatically and pay attention to what permissions are asked for.

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