Mobile Hacking: a novel twist in financial crime; Cyberthieves are using mobile phones to hack into a customer’s banking information. There are reportedly many types of software with technical sounding names that are becoming popular among mobile hackers all around the globe. These have offered novel ways to the criminals as they seek ways of attacking the financial industry.
Criminals are utilizing these softwares and malwares for stealing the financial and banking information from consumers who have no idea that they are being hacked by a mobile hacking group.
Law enforcement agents have made it known that the stealing of the information is carried out when a person logs onto the bank account with the help of his/her mobile phone.
There is no way of quantifying exactly how much money has been stolen through mobile hacking with the help of these softwares and malwares.
The reason is that these mobile hacking groups are able to access the account through normal channels after they have stolen the information from the victim’s mobile phone.
However, the prevalence of these softwares and malwares is very important that is why it has caught the attention of the regulators and the FBI.
The government investigators have come across novel malware that has been typically designed for carrying out mobile hacking. Its specific purpose it to steal financial information from users.
Special agents assigned for this task have been warning the financial institutions about the presence of these softwares and how they can cause them great losses. The banking industry is the main target of the mobile hacking applications.
It has been observed that the two most common operating systems for mobiles-iOS and Android have been the main targets of mobile hacking so far. These phones do have built in protections systems but these phones are still vulnerable.
Recently, Apple Inc. requested its users to get their operating systems updated owing to a flaw in the security setting that may allow the mobile hackers to take control of their devices remotely.
Moreover, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) also changed its guidelines for commercial banks in order to include the threats emanating from mobile phone malware. The FFIEC is a government body that checks five different financial regulatory bodies.
This growing financial threat emanates from a new generation of criminals who would specifically target banking information of customers. There is already a glut of stolen credit card numbers that are being sold on criminal websites and have become less profitable.
As of now, mobile phone hacking is very difficult to track since a victim may not even know that a theft of his / her credentials has been carried out.
