Mobile banking apps a risk for security
Alongside macro and fileless malware, mobile banking poses the biggest risk in 2016
McAfee Labs has revealed the biggest threats to security this year and into next, claiming mobile banking apps, macro and fileless malware are most prevalent.
The company released the information in its newly-released November 2015 Threats Report, which identified the biggest threats to security in the third quarter of 2015.
"The cyber threat landscape often combines something old, something new, something blundered, and something you'," Vincent Weafer, vice president of Intel Security's McAfee Labs, said in a blog post. "The third quarter provides examples of old threats repackaged with social engineering, new fileless malware replacing rootkits, mobile app coding blunders, and the exploit of the weakest link in any ecosystem: you the user."
Researchers at the lab explored mobile threats, saying poor mobile app practices, such as disregarding back-end service provider guidance, means user data is exposed to services in the cloud. Mobile banking apps are particularly targeted here, which is even more concerning considering the sensitivity of the data such apps generate.
"A two-month analysis of nearly 300,000 mobile apps led McAfee Labs to the discovery of two mobile banking Trojans responsible for taking advantage of thousands of mobile banking accounts across Eastern Europe," Weafer explained.
"Known to the industry as 'Android/OpFake' and 'Android/Marry', the two malware strains were designed to take advantage of poor mobile app coding connecting mobile apps to back-end service providers managing app data."
McAfee's report also revealed macro malware has reached a six-year high, with incidents increasing four-fold in comparison to last year. The reason such threats have risen is because spearphishing campaigns are becoming more sophisticated, targeting enterprise users and encouraging them to download attachments containing such vulnerabilities.
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2026 report - the leading resource for IT decision-maker insight on priorities and investment areas in AI, security and more.
Fileless malware should be a priority for IT managers to tackle. McAfee Labs said it captured 74,471 samples of fileless attacks in the first three quarters of 2015
Additional threats exposed in McAfee's report relate to mobile malware, which increase by 16 per cent over the last quarter, Mac OS malware, which quadrupled over the period and ransomware, which grew 18 per cent.
The good news is that rootkit-related attacks waned in popularity, dropping 65 per cent, while malicious signed binaries also declined.

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.
Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.
As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.
-
The OpenAI and Anthropic containment breaches are a bit spooky, but also quite sillyOpinion An AI leaving notes to future versions of itself is pure sci-fi; forgetting to lock down an environment is prosaic
-
Bringing data to the heart of AISponsored AI is changing our approach to data, find out how HPE Alletra Storage can help your business
-
Companies are still paying ransoms to cyber criminals despite official adviceNews A Proofpoint survey found evolving ransomware techniques and the use of AI is exacerbating the situation for victims
-
This one cyber crime group accounted for nearly a fifth of all ransomware attacks in JuneNews The Gentlemen, a ransomware a service operator, now accounts for 17% of published attacks
-
Working with the enemy: Ransomware negotiator-turned cyber criminal jailed after working with hackers to extort clientsNews Angelo Martino was supposed to be negotiating on behalf of victims, but was secretly working for ransomware operators
-
Hackers are posing as Interpol to target small businesses – here's what you need to knowNews Small businesses are warned to think twice before clicking on links
-
‘Every hour ransomware goes undetected drastically increases its potential blast radius’: Hackers are breaching networks and laying low for longer – and nearly half of firms don’t realize until data is stolenNews An ExtraHop survey found more intrusions are going undetected, leading to longer dwell times
-
Ransomware cartels are fragmenting into volatile splinter groups, warns Met Police cyber chiefNews Commoditized "cyber crime bazaars" and AI data mining are forcing law enforcement to rewrite its playbook
-
New ransomware threat group, The Gentlemen, has become one of the most active ransomware operators, accounting for 10% of all attacksNews NTT researchers warn that the RaaS group is leveraging SystemBC malware to establish covert tunnelling, evade detection, and support rapid lateral movement across enterprise environments
-
Instructure chose to a pay ransom following the Canvas cyber attack – research shows more than half of security leaders would follow suitAnalysis Opting to pay ransoms creates huge risks for enterprises – you’re relying on the word of criminals