Security News > 2022 > June > Super-spreader FluBot squashed by Europol

FluBot, the super-spreader Android malware that infected tens of thousands of phones globally, has been reportedly squashed by an international law enforcement operation.

In May, Dutch police disrupted the mobile malware's infrastructure, disconnecting thousands of victims' devices from the FluBot network and preventing more than 6.5 million spam text messages propagating the bot from reaching potential victims, according to Finland's National Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday.

The takedown followed a Europol-led investigation that involved law enforcement agencies from Australia, Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the US. First spotted in December 2020, FluBot picked up steam in 2021 and compromised non-trivial numbers of Android phones worldwide, including more than 70,000 in Spain and Finland.

The malware spreads via spam messages telling Android users to click a link to install a malicious app, purporting to be a package-delivery tracker, or asking users to listen to a fake voice message.

Once installed, FluBot asked for accessibility permissions, and the intruders used this access to steal banking app credentials and cryptocurrency wallet details.

While the law enforcement officials say this strain of FluBot is inactive, they also don't know who developed and operated the malware campaign.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/06/02/flubot_malware_squashed/