Your bank account is at risk if you installed this Chrome “update” on your Android smartphone

JVTech News Your bank account is at risk if you installed this Chrome “update” on your Android smartphone

Today, it is extremely rare for people to go to a bank to carry out movements and other banking transactions: we tend to use a smartphone or a computer for that. Hackers know this, and so they seek to recover valuable banking information using malware.

The cybersecurity company ThreatFabric has just highlighted a set of malware that targets their victims’ banking data. Named “Brokewell”, this set represents a major threat to the banking sector, and it is constantly evolving.

Beware of this fake Chrome update

The Brokewell trojan targets owners of Android devices, typically smartphones and tablets. For what ? Quite simply because this gives them access to hundreds of millions of potential targets, but also because the Chrome browser is installed on these devices. And It is via a fake Google Chrome update page that the malware pack is spread.

In the visual below, we can see the real Chrome page on the left and the fake Brokewell page on the right. The illusion is pretty good despite a few mistakeswhich pushes many users into a trap that closes once the fake update is downloaded.

A large-scale data theft

Brokewell is a multi-talented set of malware, and they are all designed to harm the people who fall victim to them. It starts with an “overlay”, that is to say by a “false screen” which is placed on top of a targeted application, typically that of a bank, with the aim of stealing the identifiers which are entered. But Brokewell can also steal cookies, take control of the device, make it ring or vibrate at random times, change the screen brightness…

Not only is Brokewell after your money, but he can also make your daily life hell. It is therefore not a very discreet piece of malware, but it visibly assumes this position. “Brokewell poses a significant threat to the banking industry, providing attackers with remote access to all assets available through mobile banking”summarizes ThreatFabric. “The Trojan appears to be in active development, with new commands added almost daily. »

Distrust is in order

Brokewell is constantly evolving: it is improving day by day and it may well continue to improve its method of propagation. If you come across a page encouraging you to update Google Chrome in an unlikely context, don’t be tricked!

Waiting for, Brokewell investigation continues. An individual or group calling themselves “Baron Samedit Marais” claimed authorship of the entire malware. We can expect to hear about it again in the future, and probably not for good reasons…