Brazil is a country with one of highest adoption rates of banking services in Latin America and the highest detection rate of banking trojans. Researchers from ESET®, a global pioneer in proactive protection for 25-years, take a look at the way this threat is distributed by cyber criminals by employing special type of executable CPL (Control Panel Application) files.
Their findings were published today in an in-depth technical research paper titled ‘CPL Malware in Brazil: Somewhere Between Banking Trojans and Malicious Emails.’
Based on the analysis of thousands of samples, ESET researchers Matias Porolli and Pablo Ramos were able to find similarities not only in the CPL downloaders, but also in the banking trojans targeting Brazil.
“Brazilian users have one of the highest rates of adoption of online banking services in Latin America - more than 50% made an online banking transaction in 2013,” said Matias Porolli, Malware Analyst from LATAM Research Lab. “Combine that with Brazil’s large population, and you can start to see why the country is so attractive to cybercriminals focused on banking trojans.”
The paper provides both an overview and deep technical analysis of the CPL malware, explaining what a CPL file is, how it works, describing the life cycle of a CPL malware attack, and the methods employed by cybercriminals to compromise Brazilian systems.
“We provided detailed examples of emails, institutions and names of the files employed by the cybercriminals,” continued Ramos. “Social engineering techniques are used to deceive victims into downloading and executing threats, making it possible for the attackers to compromise infected systems.”
ESET reminds computer users to be wary of social engineering tactics, and to make sure that computers and mobile devices are kept up to date with patches as well as run reputable security software.
More information
To learn more about CPL Malware, download ESET’s in-depth technical research paper, titled ‘CPL Malware in Brazil: Somewhere Between Banking Trojans and Malicious Emails’ and follow the #CPLbrazil hashtag on social networks.
About ESET
Since 1987, ESET® has been developing award-winning security software that now helps over 100 million users to Enjoy Safer Technology. Its broad security product portfolio covers all popular platforms and provides businesses and consumers around the world with the perfect balance of performance and proactive protection. The company has a global sales network covering 180 countries, and regional offices in Bratislava, San Diego, Singapore and Buenos Aires. For more information visit www.eset.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.