These Android Banking Trojans affect over 300,000 Google Play Store users

More and more apps are being infected with Trojans. More than 300,000 Play Store users have been infected with the Android Banking Trojan, according to a new report. Those Trojans have infiltrated many Android apps.

This information was obtained from the mobile security company ThreatFabric. The malicious code is regularly detected in apps that work in disguises, such as QR code scanners, PDF scanners, and fitness apps.

Android Banking Trojan infected Apps

They worked well for what they intended, but they had a special module called a “loader”. Loaders are small pieces of malware hidden inside apps. They can connect to a remote server and download and execute additional code.

Loaders have been around for a long time, in fact, they have been around since the late 2000s. Many of these apps are submitted without malicious code, are subject to scanning, and then such code updates or more are added through. Loader fragments can be added via multiple updates.

Once the loader is complete, the app will ask the user for additional permissions. That’s why you should always think before giving permission to the app. Think about what kind of permissions the app really needs.

These different banking Trojans appeared

ThreatFabric reports that it has identified four different Android banking Trojans that use the updated delivery strategy. Those Trojans include Anatsa, Ermak, Hydra and Alien.

Once the loader has installed any of these four Trojans, they can steal credentials for social media, instant messaging, mobile banking, cryptocurrency and more. Some of them may even skip SMS-based two-factor authentication.

Now, the infected apps are shown in the image below along with the package name of each of them. All have been removed from the Play Store, but if you have them installed on your phone, be sure to delete them.