The malware (malicious software) named BRATA has been circulating on the web for three years now. Designed as a Trojan horse, it spread on the Google Play Store as a fake WhatsApp update among Android users in Brazil.
The spyware made unauthorized transfers from the bank account of infected people. Over 10,000 downloads targeted around 500 users per day before the Trojan was taken down.
But here it is, this beginning of 2022, BRATA is coming back with a vengeance and not just in South America.
A new “variant” of the malware, no pun intended, is currently attacking data from European banking applications. He is able to recover sensitive information in order to steal money from your bank account, but in addition to making your Android smartphone unusable after his theft!
How to protect yourself?
The virus spreads through text messages and apps that imitate official bank logos. It is therefore important not to react to messages that ask you “to take immediate measures to protect your data”.
There are links, which should not be clicked, which refer to fake pages of the applications of the major banks.
Once on these pages, victims are prompted to download a “secure” application, which actually corresponds to the virus.
As soon as the user opens a banking application, the login information is saved and sent to the hackers behind the Trojan. Once the bank account is hacked, they are even able to carry out a factory cleaning of the device remotely, which renders the smartphone unusable.
According to the Cleafy website, the virus has been raging since December in the UK, Poland, Italy and Latin America, and may well spread to other countries.