ESET ‘Mobile Security 6’ Released With a Powerful Anti-Trojan Feature

• The latest release of the ESET Mobile Security suite comes with a safe space from where to launch finance apps.
• Banking trojans won’t get the chance to steal user data from the users, as the apps will run in a secured, isolated environment.
• Android users should opt for an AV solution from a reputable vendor, especially those who use their device as a wallet.

The sixth version of ESET’s ‘Mobile Security’ suite for Android devices has just landed, and it brings an exciting new feature called “Payment Protection.” As the name suggests, this system is meant to help Android users perform secure payments using their smartphones and to lock out any banking trojans and nasty malware strains that may be lurking undetected.

Contact-less payments in the pandemic age have risen to unprecedented levels and continue to rise steadily as newer technology is made available, and people are more open to embracing it. Using your phone and paying through NFC is common today, but this doesn’t mean that it’s gotten any safer than it used to be in previous years. On the contrary, the more money flies around that way, the greater the efforts of cyber-crooks to get a piece of it.

On the Android space, we’ve seen numerous banking trojans like “Ginp,” “EventBot,” and “Cerberus,” which are all trying to steal the user’s banking credentials, card data, PayPal account password, etc. One trick these apps use is to detect when the user attempts to launch the legitimate payment or banking app, and then lay a login phishing page on top of it. This is a particularly nasty trick because users are very likely to fall for it.

ESET’s “Payment Protection” automatically identifies all applications that fall into the “Finance” category and places them behind a secure execution wall. Of course, users can add applications manually onto this “safe space.” To launch any of these apps, the user has to open “Payment Protection” and do it from within the tool. This ensures that other apps on the device, like undetected malware, for example, won’t be able to recognize this launch, and thus, it won’t get the change to overlay any phishing pages or push fake messages.

Source: ESET

Unfortunately, this feature is only available for the paid (Premium) version of the ESET Mobile Security 6, which also includes a proactive anti-theft system, home monitor integration, anti-phishing, app lock, and scheduled scanning. If you opt for the free version, you’ll still get a fully-featured antivirus engine with real-time scanning, activity logs, and the ability to lock the device remotely.

Banking trojans are a severe threat in the Android ecosystem and one that’s rising. ESET and other security companies are essentially filling a security gap left by Google and finance app developers. That said, as long as these holes exist, malicious actors will attempt to exploit them, and we will be suggesting that you use additional third-party security solutions.