What Are the Biggest Mobile Cybersecurity Threats Every Business Must Know?

How many times a day do you Google something on your smartphone?

It’s second nature now. Any questions you have, any movie stars you want to look up, any local restaurants you want to check out — just grab your phone and ask.

And with more than half of worldwide internet traffic originating from phones, the popularity of mobile search shows no sign of slowing down. Particularly for businesses.

The ease, speed and convenience of mobile internet means employees can access work documents, data and software at any time. But accessing business accounts and data via your mobile device opens you up to cybersecurity threats, just like browsing on a computer.

So, what are the biggest mobile cybersecurity threats every business must know?

Malware Lurking in Websites and Apps

It’s easy to assume malware is a risk to employees going online via their desktop or laptop computers, not mobile devices.

But that’s just not the case. Malware can infect a smartphone just as it would bigger hardware and cause serious problems.

Mobile malware typically attacks smartphones through web pages, attachments or apps primed to unleash infections. Clicking a link in an email, downloading a program or installing an app could put your business’s data in danger within seconds.

It’s a simple mistake to make, especially for non-tech-savvy employees.

Infected apps may access your smartphone’s data storage, memory, internal processes and other apps. It may even run in the background without being noticed by the user, gathering information and sharing it with whoever created it.

Hands-on Device Theft

One of the most obvious and damaging cybersecurity risks is theft.

And we mean physical theft: having a phone or tablet stolen by a mugger or opportunistic criminal.

It’s not hard to imagine how this might happen. An employee is out enjoying the sunshine on their lunch break, maybe sitting in the park or outside a cafe. They put their phone down for a moment to grab a drink or open their bag.

When they look back up, the phone is gone.

This takes just seconds but can have devastating results. A hacker would be able to bypass a pin or password and get into the owner’s accounts with ease. They could access your business’s emails, banking and communications in next to no time.

Scary, isn’t it? That’s why it’s so vital that all employees take good care of their company and personal phones. Any device with data relating to the business should be secured with a pin or password, as well as the additional security measures (such as facial recognition and fingerprint scanning).

Encourage all staff to stay vigilant and be aware. If their phone is stolen, they have to admit it fast: the sooner they raise the alarm, the sooner action can be taken to protect data in the cloud.

Unsecured Wi-Fi Networks

Free, public Wi-Fi is great. Employees can take their phone or tablet to the local coffee shop and do a little work outside the office for a change of scenery. The Wi-Fi is thrown in free when you buy a drink or snack so there’s no reason to lose momentum.

But free Wi-Fi networks tend to be unsecured. And that makes anyone using them vulnerable to cybersecurity risks. Any social media interactions, emails,writing, calls and more may be available to hackers.

This is why employees must be careful when accessing Wi-Fi networks beyond their own or your business’s. If they need to wait until they’re back in the office to finish a task or make a call, a slight delay is far better than the alternative.

And this leads us nicely on to …

The Threat of Network Spoofing

Free, public Wi-Fi networks may pose a threat, but network spoofing is much more dangerous.

This involves hackers creating fake access points designed to look like legitimate Wi-Fi connections. You might see them appear on a list of Wi-Fi networks when you visit a coffee shop, bar, airport etc.

Cybercriminals give their fake networks believable names (‘Coffee Place’, ‘Airport Open Wi-Fit’ etc.) to entice oblivious users. They might ask you to set-up an account before giving you access or just let you dive right in.

One big hazard is that employees might use their standard username and password to create accounts with fake networks. And that means cybercriminals would be able to get into emails, banking accounts and anything else protected by the same details.

The entire business’s and clients’ data could be in danger because of a simple mistake.

Taking Action to Minimize Your Business’s Vulnerability

Every company wants to be safe against cybersecurity risks. Every company wants to trust its employees to handle accounts and data in a responsible way.

But it’s not so simple.

Cybercriminals use ever-more-sophisticated techniques and tools to target businesses. Employees need to be made aware of the threats they face when they’re online across all devices.

Effective training is key to help your workforce exercise caution and stay vigilant whenever they’re working or communicating on their smartphone or tablet. And make sure any company phones you hand out have been checked and utilize strict security safeguards to keep them protected.

Don’t try to handle all of your cybersecurity in-house either, especially if your business is brand new and you have little to no experience with managing data. Clients expect you to keep their information confidential and safe against leaks — if you don’t, your reputation could take a serious hit.

Work with cybersecurity specialists to assess your vulnerability and take action to defend your data. The Driz Group’s experts are here to:

• give your business a free vulnerability assessment

• identify weaknesses in your cybersecurity

• protect your cloud and on-premise environments

• reduce your business’s danger of a data breach

Want to learn more about our managed services and how they help companies just like yours every single day? Just get in touch with our dedicated teamright now!

Ramnit Malware Makes a Comeback via Google Play

Ramnit, the once notorious malware that infected 3.2 million computers around the world, has resurfaced via infected apps on Google Play.

Symantec researchers found 92 distinct apps on Google Play with a total of 250,000 downloads laden with Ramnit malware. Some of the Ramnit-infected apps that turned up on Google Play were educational and tutorial apps.

Symantec informed Google of the presence of these infected apps and the company has removed them from the app store. This isn’t the first time that Ramnit-infected apps have turned up on Google Play. In March of this year, more than 100 Ramnit-infected apps were similarly removed from Google Play.

Ramnit first appeared in the wild in 2010. In February 2015, a law enforcement operation led by the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) crippled the operation of the cybercrime group behind Ramnit by shutting down the command and control servers, as well as shutting down and 300 internet domain addresses used by the group. At the time, the group already infected 3.2 million computers in total and defrauding undetermined large number of victims.

The law enforcement operation against the group behind Ramnit was participated by investigators from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. Representatives from the private industry like Symantec and Microsoft were also involved in the law enforcement operation.

Ramnit Features

Ramnit is a multi-feature cybercrime tool. It compromised a victim in the following manner:

Spy Tool

This malware monitors web browsing activities and detects when certain websites like online banking sites are visited. Ramnit can inject itself into the web browser and alter the website of the bank to make it appear that the bank is asking the user additional information like credit card details.

Cookie Grabber

This malware can hijack online banking sessions. Ramnit attackers achieve this by stealing session cookies from web browsers and by using the stolen cookies to impersonate victims to authenticate themselves on websites.

Drive Scanner

This malware scans computer’s hard drive. It’s configured in such a way to search for specific folders that are considered likely to contain sensitive information like passwords.

Remote Access

This malware can gain remote access – upload, download, or delete files and execute commands – on the victim’s computer in two ways: by connecting to an anonymous FTP server and by Virtual network computing (VNC) module.

Persistent Threat

Ramnit is a persistent cyber threat. The malware’s creators made sure that once a computer is infected it’ll be difficult to remove the malware from the compromised computer.

Once the malware is installed on the compromised computer, it copies itself to the computer’s memory, hard drive and removable drive. The malware’s version that’s copied to the computer’s memory checks the hard disk-based copy of the malware. If the memory-based copy of the malware detects that the hard disk-based copy has been quarantined or removed, it’ll create another malware copy for the hard disk to sustain the infection.

Microsoft describes Ramnit malware this way: "This malware family steals your sensitive information, such as your bank user names and passwords. It can also give a malicious hacker access and control of your PC, and stop your security software from running."

How Ramnit Spreads

While the latest method of propagation of Ramnit is via Android apps, this doesn’t, however, mean that this malware works with Android devices. Since its appearance in 2010, this malware has always been a threat to computers using Windows as an operating system.

Ramnit won’t run on your Android device even if you’ve the misfortune of downloading a Ramnit-infected app on Google Play. In order for the Windows infection to happen, an Android device loaded with a Ramnit-infected app has to be connected to a Windows computer. Once the malware compromised a Windows computer, it searches for all exe, .dll, .htm, and .html files on any removable drives like USB drive and the local hard disk and infects them by making copies of itself.

“The HTML file infection process uses two tactics: injecting VBScript code into an HTML page that drops and executes the worm, and also injecting a hidden iframe into HTML files that downloads a remote file if the page is opened in a browser,” Symantec said.

Ramnit malware is one of the reasons why it’s unsafe to use or borrow removable drive or USB flash drive of another. You never know, this USB drive may be laden with the Ramnit malware.

In addition to propagating the malware through infected apps and through infected removable drives, Ramnit attackers also spread the malware through malicious emails and exploit kits served through malicious advertisements on social media pages and websites. Public FTP servers are also used by Ramnit attackers to distribute the malware. The Europol considers Ramnit as a botnet.

“This botnet – a term used to describe a network of infected computers - was used by the criminals running it to gain remote access and control of the infected computers, enabling them to steal personal and banking information, namely passwords, and disable antivirus protection,” Europol said. “This malware, infecting users running Windows operating systems, explored different infection vectors such as links contained in spam emails or by visiting infected websites.”

"Despite the setback many years ago, Ramnit’s operators have not completely gone away and there also seem to be many latent infections worldwide,” Symantec said. “We know that Google has a system in place for vetting uploaded apps, but we don’t have visibility into the processes for vetting submitted apps, so we can’t say for sure why these infected apps are getting through the vetting process.”

How to Prevent Ramnit Attacks

According to Microsoft, Windows Defender Antivirus detects and removes Ramnit malware.

Here are additional tips for preventing Ramnit attacks:

1. Keep your operating system and all software up-to-date.
2. Only install apps from trusted sources.
3. Carefully scrutinize the permissions requested by an app.
4. Exercise caution with emails and websites. Think before you click anything.
5. Backup your data.

Why Mobile App Vulnerabilities are Dangerous for a Business

1. Ransomware Attack

2. Danger of Dead Apps