We all witnessed the game-changing applications named ChatGPT chatbot and DALL-E 2 image generator last year in 2022. These two advanced AI technologies have resulted to be a game solver for many industries, but with good, and evil clings too, and many scammers have been working to work on the new mobile threats, a new report stated.
As per the 2023 Consumer Mobile Threat Report by McAfee, a cyber-security research firm- cybercriminals today could leverage malicious apps by sliding them into your DMs, and could take advantage of 'Bring Your Own Device' (BYOD) policies, and are further targeting youth- people in teens and twenties who are more into mobile gaming.
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Steve Grobman, Chief Technology Officer, McAfee said, "Our mobile devices are an essential part of our daily lives now more than ever. They allow us to access a wealth of information and entertainment and provide the freedom to be productive from almost anywhere."
"Unfortunately, they also provide cybercriminals with greater access to potential victims," he further added.
It was further reported that around 6.2 per cent of threats identified on Google in 2022 were in the 'Communication' category, where the main malware was masquerading the inbox via SMS apps.
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Also, it is stated that legitimate communication apps could create opportunities for scammers, by using fraudulent messages. These fraudulent messages might trick the consumers to click on a malicious link.
Though these messages might at times contain spelling or grammar errors or they could further use several odd phrasing, to detect these scams, AI tools like ChatGPT might be helpful in identifying scammers and will help in cleaning up their spelling and grammar mistakes- making it tougher to spot scam messages, stated the McAfee report.
What is the severity of these threats?
The severity of these Communication threats is very much evident in the volume of adults which is around 66 per cent. The adults have been messaged by strangers on social media platforms, with 55 per cent has been asking the users to transfer money.
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Moreover, the report has further stated that around 23 per cent of these threats have been identified as being under the "Tools" app category.
As work-related apps like VPNs, messaging managers, PDF editors, etc. for mobile devices are great productivity boosters. These kinds of apps are targeted for malware as people do expect the platform to require permissions on their handsets to proceed with access to the device.
Furthermore, the report has stated that around 9 per cent of threats have been identified as Games from app categories like Casual, Action and Arcade.
Who are these apps targeting?
These malicious apps have been frequently targeting the activities of children and teenagers- which they majorly enjoy- like gaming, video/reel creation and social media management.
Last year, the most common types of threats which were detected in the gaming category were aggressive adware applications which use to display excessive advertisements while the player used the application and at times when the user was not even using them.
