New Android trojan could hack your banking apps

These days, we do a lot of things on our phones. This includes working, sending emails, surfing the web, and yes, banking transactions. If you do a lot of banking on your phone, then you might want to keep an eye out for a newly-discovered Android trojan that can target your banking apps.

Dubbed “ToxicPanda”, this trojan was discovered by Cleafy’s Threat Intelligence team a few weeks ago. Basically when it targets a device, it uses highly-sophisticated methods that can apparently get around security measures that a bank might put into place. Once it does, it can make unauthorized withdrawals from your account.

Thankfully, it doesn’t appear to be particularly widespread. The report claims that about 1,500 devices in countries around the world have been affected so far. While this is unfortunate, like we said, it is relatively small compared to the millions of Android phones out there today.

So what can you do to avoid being a target? First of all, avoid sideloading apps if possible. This is because sideloaded apps aren’t checked by app stores like the Play Store, which means they could contain malware like ToxicPanda. Also, avoid clicking on suspicious links or downloading attachments from unknown emails. This should, for the most part, allow you to avoid installing trojans or malware on your Android phone and keep your banking apps safe.