According to Kaspersky's new report on cyber threats in the financial industry, the number of users encountering banking Trojan on mobile devices has increased 3.6 times compared to 2023. The number of cryptocurrency scams also recorded an increase of 83.4%.
Financial fraud
In 2024, cybercriminals will continue to lure users to access fake websites, simulate the interfaces of famous brands and financial institutions. The banking sector has become the most targeted target in financial fraud cases, accounting for 42.6% of the total number of cases, compared to 38.5% in 2023.
Of which, Amazon Online Shopping is the most commonly fake brand in online shopping campaigns, accounting for 33.2%. The rate of attacks on Apple has decreased by nearly 3 percentage points to 15.7% compared to 2023.
In contrast, scams targeting Netflix users increased slightly to 16%. Notably, Alibaba has become an attractive target for cybercriminals who commit financial fraud, with fraud cases increasing from 3.2% (2023) to 8% (2024) on the platform.
In addition, fraud impersonating payment systems is also a hot front. In 2024, Kaspersky detected and prevented these types of incidents, accounting for 19.3% of total financial fraud (down slightly from 19.9% in 2023).
Among the impersonated payment systems, PayPal remains at the top of the list, although the share of attacks targeting the brand has fallen significantly, from 54.7% (2023) to 37.5% (2024).
In contrast, Mastercard recorded a nearly double of counterfeit attacks, jumping from 16.6% to 30.5%. Another significant change is the appearance of American Express and Cielo in the Top 5 most impersonated payment systems, replacing last year's Visa, Interac...
2024 also marks a sudden increase in cryptocurrency-related scams. Kaspersky's anti-fraud technologies have blocked a total of 10,706,340 visits to fraudulent cryptocurrency-themed links, up 83.4% from 5,838,499 in 2023. Accordingly, as cryptocurrency becomes more popular, the number of attacks will also tend to increase.
authoritarian code targeting personal computers, cryptocurrencies
2024 recorded a significant decrease in the number of personal computer (PC) users affected by financial institutions, from 312,453 (in 2023) to 199,204.
The main trend over the past year shows that most of the PC financial assets detected by Kaspersky have shifted their targets from attacking online banking services to stealing cryptocurrency assets.
The most popular banking Trojanes in 2024 include: ClipBanker (62.9%), Grandoreiro (17.1%), CliptoShuffler (9.5%) and Bit stealer (1.3%).
Of which, Grandoreiro is a sophisticated banking Trojan, which attacked 1,700 banks and 276 cryptocurrency wallets in 45 countries and territories in 2024.
The countries with the highest rate of PC users affected by authoritarian code include Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay...
According to Kaspersky's cybersecurity experts, to avoid financial scams, including cryptocurrency, individuals need to:
Always bat on multi-factor authentication and use a strong, unique password for each account;
Do not click on links from suspicious messages;
Always check the website address carefully before entering login information or bank card details;
download the application from reliable sources such as the official app store; check the rights that the application requires, especially potential risky access rights such as Aides Services, and consider carefully before agreeing to grant the permission.
