Australia under Dual Attack: Corona and Mandrake

Australia is under serious threat.

The life challenging virus Corona has forced the nation to go under a lock down for long thus jeopardizing its economy and society.

If that's wasn't enough, here's more.

Mandrake Spyware is targeting Australian Android users.

A cyber security research team has discovered the "Mandrake" spying operation targeting Australian mobile banking users.

The spyware is equipped to corrupt Google Chrome, Gmail, ANZ Australia, Bank of Melbourne Mobile Banking, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Bank of SA, Australian Super, and PayPal apps.

Mandrake was first discovered in early 2020but is supposedly active from 4 years ago.

The threat actors behind the spyware encouraged mobile banking in the country before launching the attacks which were manually orchestrated, affecting arguably 500 or more users.

It has been constantly updated with new features, bug patches, and improved functionalities during the last 4 years.

The modus operandi of the campaign is as follows.

The spyware first does a complete scan of the device and captures personal information about the targeted victim.

After this, the attackers gain access to the users' preferences, device usage, inactivity times, and are equipped to record their screens.

Using the spyware the attackers can steal credentials, exfiltrate information, transfer money, modify phone volume, block calls, messages and also blackmail.

The cyber researchers have even suspected a parallel program by the bad actors to sell the victims' information or access to others.

The first Mandrake spyware attack happened in 2016-2017 in the UK, US, Germany and Netherlands. The current attacks are more centralized in Australia than anywhere else owing to its high usage of mobile banking and a high GDP per capita.

ISOEH is the organization which educates cyber enthusiasts with the latest techniques of ethical hacking.

Read more stories on cyber security: https://www.isoeh.com/exclusive-blog-details-Hackers-Are-Taking-Corona-Camouflage-to-Hit-Targets-across-the-World.html