Clicking This Fake Chrome Update Could Drain Your Bank Account and Leak Your Location
Security threat firm ThreatFabric has released details about a new Android-based banking malware called Brokewell. The name refers to the malware's ability to drain bank accounts, but it can do so much more. The program is said to be in active deployment as of this article's writing, and currently masquerades as an update for Google Chrome on Android, even going so far as to very closely mimic the actual ads Google puts out for its browser. ThreatFabric warns that Brokewell is equipped with both remote-control capabilities and data-stealing functionality. All of that is built right into the malware rather than relying on a cloud connection, making it especially detrimental to your device's security. Like many other recent Android malware families , Brokewell is also capable of getting around the Google-imposed restrictions meant to keep sideloaded applications from requesting permissions to accessibility services.