Researchers at the Californian information security company Anomali have discovered 12 fake applications for tracing contacts with patients with COVID-19, posing as official programs. Attackers are actively exploiting the coronavirus panic to trick users into revealing their credentials.
According to experts, fake applications are designed to download and install malware (Anubis, SpyNote, etc.) on devices and steal financial and confidential user data. Criminals do not distribute their software through official stores such as the Google Play Store, but use other apps, third-party stores, and websites.
Anubis malware is a banking Trojan for Android devices that uses overlays to access infected devices and steal user credentials. The malware has existed since at least 2017 and is disguised as legitimate applications. The main functions of the program are access to SMS messages, location, contact list, system information, injections into various banking and social applications to collect confidential information, keylogging, recording phone calls, etc.
SpyNote is also an Android Trojan designed to steal data from infected devices. The Trojan was first discovered in December 2016. The main functions of the program are access to SMS, GPS data, contacts, making calls from the victim's number, checking the browser history, checking installed applications, accessing information about the device, etc.
According to experts, fake applications are distributed in Armenia, Brazil, India, Colombia, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Singapore, and some of them pose as official government programs.
Contact tracing apps for COVID-19 patients are being developed in many countries. For example, as part of the fight against the spread of coronavirus infection, the government of Qatar has obliged citizens and residents of the country to install a similar application on their mobile devices to track contacts with infected people. In April of this year, France joined the list of countries using digital technologies in the fight against the spread of coronavirus. French experts are working on the creation of a mobile application StopCovid, which will use Bluetooth to identify the chain of infection and warn the user if he is near a sick person.
