New Sturnus Banking Trojan Targets WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal Messages

A new Android banking trojan named Sturnus is designed to target communications from secure messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal, according to mobile security and fraud detection company ThreatFabric.

The security firm says Sturnus is fully functional, but appears to be under development. While it has yet to be widely deployed, an analysis of the malware showed that it’s aimed at the customers of financial institutions in Central and Southern Europe.

Once it has infected a device, the malware can conduct overlay attacks to display fake bank login screens to trick victims into handing over their credentials. In addition, Sturnus enables cybercriminals to log keystrokes and allows them to remotely control the compromised device.

The malware is designed to gain administrator privileges on Android phones and monitors the victim’s activities to detect attempts to remove it from the device.

One noteworthy capability of Sturnus is related ...