S’pore police: Don’t download files from unknown sources on phones, risks of losing private pics & vids, banking & social media credentials real – Mothership.SG

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The Singapore police and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) has issued an advisory to remind the public of the dangers of downloading files from unknown sources that can lead to malware installation on victims’ mobile devices.

This may result in confidential and sensitive data, such as banking credentials, being stolen.

Don’t download things from sketchy sources

The advisory said malware may infect mobile devices through various means, including through the downloading of free software from unknown sources, opening of unknown email attachments and visiting of malicious websites.

Users should also be wary if they are asked to download unknown or suspicious Android Package Kit (APK) files onto their mobile devices.

This files may appear with seemingly genuine naming conventions, such as GooglePlay23Update.apk or GooglePlay.apkUpdate.apk.

These are not official APK files released by Google even though they contain the references to “GooglePlay”, the advisory warned.

Plenty of risks

Upon installation of the mobile malware, users’ mobile devices may be exposed to the following risks:

• Significant decline in the mobile devices’ performance

• Unauthorised access to the mobile devices’ systems/ data that allow attackers to remotely control infected mobile devices, possibly resulting in loss of user control

• Unauthorised installation or uninstallation of applications

• Interception of SMSes

• Receipt of unwanted push notifications or warnings

• Exfiltration of confidential and sensitive data stored in infected mobile devices such as banking credentials, stored credit card numbers, social media account credentials, private photos and/ or videos, among other information.

Attackers can use such information to gain unauthorised access to users’ social media accounts to perpetrate impersonation scams or perform fraudulent financial transactions that results in reputational and monetary losses.

Prevention methods

Members of the public are advised to take the following steps to ensure that their mobile devices are adequately protected against malware:

• Only download and install…