As we previously pointed out on HackRead that smartphones are probably the biggest form of hacking for the cyber hackers this year, another news from Malaysia have arose regarding the hacking scenarios through smartphone. The Malaysian cyber crime has reported that people nationwide has faced huge losses of money this year from the hands of cyber hackers. There has been hacks through SMS, apps and other vulnerabilities of the smartphones.
Through SMS, hackers send some sort of Trojan in the mobile and people due to lack of knowledge get trap into it. Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan the director of cyber hacking department describes this form of hacking in these words:
“Their modus operandi is to send short messaging service (SMS) known as Trojan to consumers who unknowingly will be charged when replying to the SMS.
“Consumers only realize this after receiving high phone bills although they did not use the service”
Apps having malware were also a form of destruction in Malaysia. The hackers uploaded such type of apps that brought malware into their devices and thus resulting in consumers bearing the cost of downloading the app. This apps were uploaded outside the trusted app store Apple and Google. So, the director of the Malaysian cyber hacking department recommended to download only from these store.
The Malaysian cyber statistics department showed a shocking figure of RM 21.8 Million losses during the year via smartphones. Out of which Online purchases were via phones recorded the highest losses of about RM14.5 million (1,298 cases), SMS or phone call losses marked RM3.4 million (412 cases), simple hacking caused RM3.3 million losses (24 cases) and internet banking and phone banking recorded RM590,000 losses (74 cases). Furthermore, there were 25 abusing through mobile phone cases were recorded.
The customers registered a number of complains regarding unrecognized charges for their mobile phone usage. About 7.7 million smartphones were having the same complains this year. The director described this in these words:
“In this regard, they can also channel their complaints to MCMC which can compound telcos for making unreasonable charges. This way, we can detect fraud by cyber criminals.”
But the director also said the Malaysian cyber crime department is working on a system to protect smartphones and cell phones from being hacked. He said:
In line with the development of cyber crime, improvement in terms of equipment and special technologies such as hardware and software that must always be updated to ensure effectiveness,”
