Malware Zeus Poses a Threat to Blackberry Users

By Thea Neuman (Google)

It appears that notorious controversies & troubles will always follow Research in Motion like a shadow until any of these two things happen in future – either RIM returns with a bang by launching its much-talked BB 10 smartphones or it finally accepts its defeat and clear the way for feasible alternatives like acquisition or merger.

Recently, RIM found symptoms of mobile phone version of Zeus malware called ‘Zitmo’, in BB platform. Zitmo has been affecting Android Phones from past several years but Blackberry was fortunate enough to not become victim of this infamous malware until now. The chances of Zitmo affecting BB devices of RIM have been found to be quite high.

In the past, variants of Zitmo appeared in a disguised form of add-ons for security & as a security app for banking sector. With BB as the latest target, this app presents a phone which has been attacked by a malware called “Zertifikat”. When a user starts running this app, a message is displayed in German language mentioning that the installation has been successfully completed and a code of activation for app is shown on the screen.

If these reports are to be believed, a new Zitmo version has begun targeting Android-based devices in a couple of European countries like Italy, Spain & Germany. Zitmo is believed to follow the footsteps of its predecessor Zeus version by targeting users’a online bank credentials. The former Zitmo version would accomplish the task of stealing online bank credentials by keeping a track of incoming SMS and then selecting the ones that would come from bank. This version would then direct such messages to the control-&-command devices over which an attacker would be exercising his control.

Denis Maslennikov (a Kaspersky Lab researcher) revealed that so far BB platform has managed to keep such malwares at bay but currently there have been found around 4 samples of Zeus malware in BB. Adrian Stone (RIM’s security chief) recently stated during an interview at the Black Hat Conference that the company is extremely serious about handling this sensitive issue and is gearing itself in order to counter such malware attacks. He stressed on the point that when it comes to security then their company can’t afford to put its reputation at stake because RIM has always been recognized for offering impeccable security solutions for enterprises.

With the increase on dependability on mobile phones by users, there has been a rise in the incidents of targeting a user using mobile devices for making online payments by attackers. We hope that RIM would be successful in dealing with such malicious practices but it would be better for end-users to adopt some precautions. One of the most effective prevention in order to avoid any fraudulent incident is ensuring that the installation of apps is done only from an official app store because unconventional app stores are more vulnerable to malware attacks. That’s why attackers prefer to target such unofficial app stores by placing malicious apps.