The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has issue a strong warning to all states, Union territories and agencies based on inputs received from Interpol about how a malicious software called Cerberus is swindling financial data such as credit card details by coaxing people for COVID-19 related information. The nation's top investigative agency in their statement said, "CBI alerts State/UT/Central Agencies on a malicious software threat that uses an update related to the Coronavirus pandemic,".

Smartphone users will come across text messages from a Trojan virus and will be asked to click a link under the claim that COVID-19 updates will be provided. Upon clicking the link, a malicious application will then get installed on the phone, which will withdraw important financial data. The agency further went on to state, "Based on inputs received from INTERPOL, the CBI has issued an alert relating to a banking Trojan known as Cerberus. This malicious software takes advantage of COVID-19 Pandemic to impersonate and send SMS using the lure of COVID-19 related content to download the embedded malicious link, which deploys its malicious app usually spread via phishing campaigns to trick users into installing it on their smartphones,".

The CBI then said, "This Trojan primarily focuses on stealing financial data such as credit card numbers. In addition, it can use overlay attacks to trick victims into providing personal information and can capture two-factor authentication details,". Upon stealing the data, Cerberus could then use it to make unauthorized transactions from the credit cards.