New Android banking trojan is draining accounts and snooping on encrypted chats — how to stay safe

A picture of a skull and bones on a smartphone depicting malware.

Earlier this year, Google announced plans to make sideloading apps significantly harder to do on the best Android phones. However, many Android owners did not welcome this controversial move.

Now though, fans of sideloading apps might want to reconsider thanks to a new malware strain that can bypass encrypted chats in apps like WhatsApp and Signal and targets financial apps. This new banking trojan, dubbed Sturnus, originates in malicious APKs.