Italian Plumber Gathers Coins, Saves the Princess, and Delivers Malware

Another new game is taking the mobile game world by storm and it’s all about a plumber. It’s called Super Mario Run and currently available for iPhone devices running iOS versions 8 and above. That little Italian guy can waste hours of your time, for better or worse. But here’s some unwelcome news; if you have an Android device and are playing the game after downloading from a third-party site, you just may have installed the Marcher online banking malware on your device.

Yep, Mario and friends has so far only been officially released for iOS. It has been in the app store since mid-December of last year and as of this writing, has 6,775 reviews. However, you won’t find it in the Google Play store yet and the impatience of people is what cyber criminals are counting on. The malware placed inside the fake versions of the game will not only steal your online banking credentials, but can get details of Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, Gmail, and the Google Play store to name a few. They do this if you grant the application administrator rights, which you should never do; especially for a game.

Game players are often targeted with fake game apps so that the thieves of the world can get all kinds of information.  This was the case for Pokémon Go, for example. In that case, the demand to get the game was so high that it crashed servers, leaving eager gamers looking for alternative, third-party ways to get in. That led to hundreds of fake Pokémon Go apps that were riddled with malware.

That is why sideloading, or getting apps from sites that are not the official app stores is highly discouraged. Those apps are not subject to the same levels of security and testing scrutiny of the ones that do get into the official stores.

Remember that just because it is in the Google Play or Apple Store, does not guarantee that it is indeed a secure app and safe to download. There have been cases where malware has made it into them. However, it is safer. Just be sure to read reviews and make sure to feel confident in the app before putting it on your device.

If there are only a few reviews of a new app, then perhaps it’s better to wait a bit until others have had a chance to use it. That is because new apps that are intending harm often have fake reviews to lure others into installing them. If there are no negative reviews or comments and/or all the “stars” are at the max, it may also be a warning indicator. After all, there is always some sort of constructive criticism posted in reviews and not much, if anything gets the max stars from everyone.

The Marcher malware is not new. It’s been around since 2013 and has been transformed numerous times. It even posed as an Android firmware update at one time. Always use caution with apps and stick with the official developers and app stores for your devices. Just to be safer, make sure to keep current backups of your mobile devices and computers, so if malware does strike, you can quickly restore them too. Otherwise, you might feel like those poor toadstools and turtles Mario keeps jumping on to. They must have the worst headaches!