Malicious actors are concentrating their efforts on the money in people’s pockets. Kaspersky detected 162,275 new mobile banking Trojan installation packages in the first quarter of 2026 — more than twice the number recorded across the whole of 2024, and roughly two-thirds of the 2025 annual total in a single quarter. Banking Trojans accounted for 52.96% of all malicious mobile applications detected in the first quarter of 2026, up from roughly 31% across 2025 as a whole.
The findings, based on anonymized data from Kaspersky Security Network, reveal that attackers are intensifying efforts to exploit the growing dependence on mobile devices for shopping, entertainment, communications, and work.
Among the most significant trends observed in Q1 2026:
- Kaspersky blocked more than 2.67 million attacks involving malware, adware and unwanted mobile software.
- Kaspersky detected more than 306,000 malicious installation packages in total, reaching 306,070 samples. Kaspersky identified 439 packages associated with mobile ransomware Trojans. Preinstalled backdoors embedded in device firmware during manufacturing, including Triada and Keenadu, ranked among the most frequently encountered mobile threats.
These numbers demonstrate that smartphones are no longer secondary targets for cybercriminals — they are now one of the primary battlegrounds. Consumers today store personal information, passwords, private communications, photos, and work-related data on their phones, making mobile devices highly attractive targets.
The findings build on a concerning trend observed throughout 2025. Over the course of last year, Kaspersky solutions blocked more than 14 million mobile attacks globally, averaging approximately 1.17 million attacks every month.
“Cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging sophisticated techniques to distribute malicious mobile applications through unofficial app stores, phishing links, fake giveaways, modified legitimate applications, malicious advertising campaigns, and mobile scam schemes designed to trick users into revealing sensitive information,” said Mr. Choon Hong Chee, Head of Consumer Channel for APAC at Kaspersky.
Attackers are also increasingly abusing legitimate online services and trusted tools to evade detection, with many attacks now unfolding in multiple stages that begin with seemingly harmless files, links, or applications before progressing to malicious activity.
Separate Kaspersky consumer research into messaging-app fraud, The Great Messaging Heist, found that a single successful scam message costs the average victim US$733. More than half of successful scams (52%) run their course in under 30 minutes from first contact to the point where money or personal data changes hands, and two-thirds of victims (66%) believe AI was used against them — most commonly in AI-written messages (42%), followed by generated or cloned voices (31%) and deepfake images or video (25%).
Kaspersky recommends that users:
- Install applications only from trusted marketplaces;
- Avoid clicking suspicious links or promotional offers;
- Regularly update operating systems and apps;
- Verify requests for personal information received through messaging platforms;
- Use dedicated mobile security solutions to detect malicious activity in real time.
As mobile devices continue to become central to digital lifestyles across Southeast Asia and globally, cybersecurity experts emphasize that mobile protection should now be viewed as a necessity rather than an optional add-on.
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