Researchers at Group-IB have discovered a new NFC relay malware family, purpose-built to capture live card data via NFC and forward it in real time to attackers. They dubbed it “WindRelay.”
NFC (Near Field Communication) is wireless technology that allows devices such as smartphones, payment cards, and payment terminals to communicate when they’re very close together. So, instead of stealing your physical bank card, the attackers capture NFC activity on an infected mobile phone and relay it in real time to a criminal-controlled device held against a contactless payment terminal, or an ATM that supports contactless cash withdrawals.
The researchers describe a 13-minute call impersonating a bank, in which a victim was persuaded to install an Android app labelled with the bank’s name. That app was a remote access Trojan (RAT) called SpyNote. SpyNote gave the attacker remote control of the phone and enabled the quiet installation of a second app, WindRelay.
Read more…
Source: Malware Bytes Labs
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- NightEagle targets Russian companies
September 16, 2026
Over the past year, Kaspersky Global Emergency Response Team (GERT) has investigated several incidents involving the NightEagle group (APT-Q-95). This group has been active since at least 2023 and originally focused on organizations in Asia. Kaspersky researchers have now identified attacks by the group targeting businesses in Russia. This post examines both known and new ...
- Hackers publish thousands of drivers’ data after breaching Florida motor vehicle database
September 16, 2026
The ShinyHunters hacking group has published hundreds of thousands of files from a Florida state database of vehicles and driver information. The hackers said they published the stolen data on its leak site “because the victim did not pay a ransom or cooperate and comply” with the hackers’ demands. The hackers said they breached the database, ...
- CVE-2026-76461: Critical Cisco Secure Email Gateway Vulnerability Exploited in the Wild
September 15, 2026
On September 14, 2026, Cisco published a security advisory for CVE-2026-76461, a critical SQL injection vulnerability affecting Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Secure Email Gateway. The vulnerability has a reported CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 and could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges on an affected appliance. Cisco Secure ...
- Iranian Cyber Targeting of Dissidents, Activists and Journalists
September 15, 2026
CHOSEN BRICK is a malware family that has been used to target individuals around the world including in the UK, US and the Netherlands from at least 2025. CHOSEN BRICK enables Iranian state cyber actors to collect information on a target’s contacts, emails and social media messages, which could enable tracking of their movements. Iran almost ...
- ClickFix attacks are tricking Mac and Windows users into hacking themselves
September 14, 2026
If you clicked on an HBO Max ad on Reddit over the past week, you might want to check your computer for malware. These so-called “ClickFix” attacks have quickly become one of the rising cybersecurity threats of 2026, and they’re getting both sneakier and compromising people’s devices with greater frequency. Until recently, ClickFix attacks were a ...
- OpenAI’s malicious bot swarm attacked RubyGems
September 14, 2026
OpenAI agents appear to have flooded RubyGems with malicious packages, adding to a near-daily deluge of rogue AI models engaging in potentially unlawful activity while their human creators face growing questions over responsibility for their agents’ bad behavior. A swarm of agents began uploading malware to the Ruby package registry on May 5, and flooded RubyGems with more than 2,000 malicious packages between May ...