More than 8 million Android devices have been cumulatively compromised with 15 SpyLoan apps that leverage social engineering to obtain unnecessary permissions and compromise sensitive data for extortion attacks as the activity of such apps increased by more than 75% between the second and third quarter, according to Security Affairs.
Malicious ads with time-limited offers and countdowns have been leveraged by threat actors to lure downloads of the predatory loan apps, which would seek unneeded permissions for SMS, contact, call record, phone storage, calendar, microphone, and camera access, which would then be used for extortion and contact spamming in the event a loan payment is missed, a report from McAfee showed. While Peruvian authorities have already successfully disrupted a SpyLoan app-related call center that victimized more than 7,000 individuals in Peru, Chile, and Mexico, the adaptability of the threat has posed challenges in combating it. "This networked approach not only increases the scale of the threat but also complicates efforts to trace and shut down these operations, as they can easily adapt and relocate their operations to new regions," said the report.
