Expert gives tips on protecting devices from the Mamont trojan

The Mamont Trojan has been around for quite some time and is actively used by attackers. However, as with many other Trojans, its distribution scheme changes periodically, said Alexander Vurasko, director of development at Solar AURA, Solar's external digital threat monitoring center. He told Izvestia on January 28 how not to fall for the tricks of scammers.

"In the case of Mamont, different legends were used at different times to carry out a successful attack: from a fake application for tracking parcels to a link to an alleged photo with the comment "Is that you in the photo?".". However, protecting yourself from this trojan is extremely simple. Like any Trojan program, Mamont can't infect a smartphone by itself; it requires the user's willful actions: roughly speaking, the victim needs to launch and install the malicious program himself," the expert said.

He advised, first of all, to go into the settings of the smartphone and prohibit the installation of applications not from marketplaces. According to him, the second step is to follow the basic rules of digital hygiene. Installing a program from the official website of the bank is safe, and downloading from a previously unknown resource - categorically not.

"The third step is a basic understanding of what an application is and what the Android operating system is. A file with an APK extension is not a photo, an animated picture or a voice message. It's an application installation package. And if you are sent a 'picture' with an APK extension, you are 100% trying to be scammed," Vurasko added.

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In addition, it is worth being careful in general. He reminded that attackers are always trying to provoke the victim to make rash actions: they demand to click on the link faster, go to the site faster and so on.

The expert advised not to be in a hurry and to carefully consider your actions. Even if a person has downloaded a malicious file to his smartphone, it is not dangerous until the user launches it.

"When you try to open it, Android will tell you that you are installing an app. Did you just want to open the picture? Then click 'no' and don't install anything. It's clearly not a picture in front of you. Well, if you do install a malicious program, it will most likely ask you for permission to access various smartphone functions in order to work correctly. Will the picture request access to the phonebook, internal memory, sending messages and making calls? The correct answer is no," Vurasco said.

He also recommended that antivirus for mobile platforms should not be neglected.

Earlier, on December 17, 2024, the department for organizing the fight against the illegal use of information and communication technologies of the Russian Interior Ministry reported a new fraud: under the guise of a tracker, a person downloads a mobile banking Trojan - Mamont, which gains access to the phone. In addition to banking application login information, attackers can also gain access to a contact book, photo archive, e-mail, cryptographic keys and electronic signatures.