How to Avoid FluBot Malware on Your Android – Guide
Can we, as a collective tech community, agree that malicious scams and hacks are bad and we shouldn’t do them anymore? Not? Okay, back to reality, where your Android phone is being attacked by another malware scam and uses another nefarious tactic to do so. Here’s what you need to know about FluBot, and how to keep your data safe.
A Brief History of FluBot
FluBot is not a new threat, but it is definitely re-emerging. Malware first appeared in early 2021, originating in Spain and passing through the UK and the rest of Europe. It infects victims’ smartphones, starting with an SMS that poses as an official alert from a delivery company, warning the victim that a package is coming and encouraging them to tap a URL to track it. Doing this brings up a page instructing the user to download a tracking app for the package. The tracking app – surprise, surprise – turned out to be malware, injecting the smartphone with nasty malware that spied on user activity on the smartphone. The goal, of course, was to steal financial login information so hackers could steal your bank accounts. How considerate.
FluBot has new tricks up your sleeve
Hackers like those behind FluBot thrive by ignoring its scams and scams. As such, they likely saw diminishing returns as affected areas of the world learned about malware; government agencies in FluBot’s target countries warned citizens about Flubot, exposing the kind of message it would try trick users download the problem first. So what should FluBot hackers do? They must evolve. Just as the Inception team drew the brand’s attention to the nature of the dream, hackers are bringing the eyes of the world to FluBot. Now, when you tap the link in their malicious text messages, they pop-up telling people that their phones are infected with FluBot. The only way to remove FluBot, according to FluBot, is to download an “Android security update”. (The “Android Security Update” is, unsurprisingly, infected with FluBot.)
How to prevent FluBot from infecting your smartphone
First, and most obviously, don’t click on these links. Don’t click on weird links in general, like those that ask you to track a package you didn’t order. These are just cyber security best practices; always check the legitimacy of a link before opening it, whether on a smartphone, tablet or computer. Note that Android only phones are affected by FluBot; iPhones can receive the message and open the pop-up, but the app cannot be installed on iOS. You can also make sure that your Android apps are not able to install additional unknown apps without your permission. This will prevent apps like FluBot from sneaking into your device. For Android 8 or later, go to Settings > Apps > Special Access > Install Unknown Apps and make sure “Not Allowed” is set for your apps. If any app says “Allowed”, change it to “Not Allowed”. For Android 7 or earlier, go to Settings > Security (or Lock screen & security) and make sure “Unknown sources” is disabled. If you’ve tapped the text message link but haven’t downloaded any apps, the good news is that there doesn’t seem to be any risk right now. From what we understand, FluBot is only effective when you actually download the app linked to the link in the pop-up; the link in the SMS just takes you to the pop-up, so this process alone should not infect your phone with malware. Still, CERT NZ recommends that you change your passwords if you tapped that SMS link, just for safety. And OK, let’s say you selected the link in the pop-up, and you’ve downloaded the FluBot app hidden inside it. Do not panic. Reset factory settings phone to completely remove any traces of FluBot on your device or restore from a backup prior to downloading the FluBot app. Then change all passwords for your connected accounts. You should also contact your bank to verify that there has been no suspicious activity on your account. And never click or touch unexpected links again.
Final note
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