• Skip to main content

Biz Builder Mike

You can't sail Today's boat on Yesterdays wind - Michael Noel

  • Cryptocurrency Exchange
  • Blockchain Consultants
  • About Us
  • Blog

financial services

Jan 22 2021

YIELD App, Created by Fintech and Cybersecurity Experts, to Expand its DeFi focused Digital Banking Solution to Avalanche

YIELD App is getting ready to expand its decentralized finance (DeFi) banking solution to Avalanche.

According to a blog post published on January 22, 2021 by Ava Labs, which supports the ongoing development of Avalanche, a distributed ledger technology (DLT)-focused platform and project, this new integration will allow YIELD users to more easily gain access to new opportunities within Avalanche’s evolving DeFi ecosystem so they can “maximize their crypto returns.”

As confirmed in the update, the YIELD App will be expanding to Avalanche following the completion of the integration during the second quarter of this year. The initiative will aim to take advantage of the “rapid growth of opportunities” in Avalanche’s DeFi ecosystem.

As noted in the announcement:

“YIELD App is led by an experienced team of capital markets, Fintech, cybersecurity, and crypto professionals, and adheres to internationally recognized standards under global financial, regulatory, and licensing best practices.”

The YIELD App’s main product combines two major components its team believes were not found in the majority of DeFi apps. They include a “proprietary” portfolio management engine on the back-end and a digital banking and wealth management app on the front-end.

By leveraging all these capabilities, the app can regularly monitor and assess/evaluate the overall profitability of strategies across the DeFi space, such as liquidity mining, arbitrage, liquidations, margin and collateralized lending, and various other income-generating methods.

It employs an advanced risk management solution, allowing consumers to “achieve their optimal risk/reward ratio.”

YIELD App users are able to generate a “minimum of 12% APY and up to 20% APY–returns are maximized by eliminating gas fees and paying interest daily,” the announcement noted.

Tim Frost, CEO of YIELD App, stated:

“DeFi’s growth has been undeniable, but in order to bring it into the mainstream, hybrid crypto financial services providers, DeFi project owners, and innovators must collaborate to build better, more accessible products and services. This collaboration with Avalanche provides an opportunity for YIELD App to work with a best-in-class DeFi protocol developer and blockchain pioneer to make it easier for all investors to acquire digital assets and participate in DeFi services.” 

YIELD App’s user-friendly application and web platform allow users across the globe to generate fairly  high returns from various DeFi products “without having to go through a lengthy, complex, and often costly learning process.”

YIELD provides an investment fund that’s managed by a team with considerable experience in the Fintech and cybersecurity space.

As noted in the update, at “the core of its strategy is the YLD token, which rewards community members and allows them to boost their APY from 12% to 20%.”

As previously reported, Avalanche is an open-source platform for creating DeFi apps and enterprise-grade blockchain or DLT deployments in “one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem.” Software engineers who create solutions on Avalanche are reportedly able to develop robust, reliable, and highly-secure software and customized DLT networks with “complex rulesets” or build on various private or public subnets (sub-networks).

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: 2021, AIM, Apps, ava, ava labs, avalanche, Banking, blockchain, Blockchain & Digital Assets, blog, Capital Markets, ceo, Community, crypto, cybersecurity, decentralized, decentralized finance, defi, digital, digital assets, digital banking, distributed ledger technology, dlt, Fees, finance, financial services, fintech, fintech apps, fund, Global, Go, integration, investment, Ledger, lending, markets, mining, more, other, portfolio, product, Products, returns, risk, Risk Management, Software, Space, Strategy, Technology, tim frost, token, Wealth, work, yield app

Jan 20 2021

Elaborate Scam App Impersonates Leading Asian Bank; Victims Duped into ‘Investing’

Elaborate Scam App Impersonates Leading Asian Bank; Victims Duped into ‘Investing’Elaborate Scam App Impersonates Leading Asian Bank; Victims Duped into ‘Investing’

Zimperium, in collaboration with a leading Asian bank, have uncovered the early stages of a coordinated effort by scammers to defraud existing and new bank customers. In this blog, we will:

  • Alert the general public about the scam before it gains traction; 
  • Outline the entire scam around the fake bank app; and
  • Show how it is also targeting other financial services, including another bank.

The campaign coincided with the bank’s announcement about its development of a digital exchange, enabling institutional investors and accredited investors to tap into a fully integrated tokenization, trading, and custody ecosystem for digital assets. 

Thus far, dozens have downloaded the app and have lost an average of $1,500 each. The app – first seen on VirusTotal on December 22, 2020 – has still not been identified as malware or scamware by any anti-virus companies. 

The campaign remains active and is, in fact, growing:

  • It appears to be downloadable via third party sites and/or phishing links;
  • The command and control servers are still operational;
  • The elaborate scam itself features, among other aspects, active customer support; and 
  • We’ve learned of a similar campaign targeting a second bank. We are reaching out to that bank directly, before revealing the name.  

Downloading the app

Once the app is downloaded from a third party store or phishing link and is opened, the victim is presented with the following login page:

Figures 1, 2: Fake login and registration page along with the “password retrieval” option

As part of the registration process, users are asked to provide an email address, account number, “rganization code” (note the typo appears in the app itself) and other details. 

In an attempt to appear legitimate, registration generates an automated email containing a verification code trying to impersonate a legitimate email from the bank (including using the bank’s name in the email address). We received verification codes when we registered with legitimate and fake information.  

Figure 3: Fake email for registration with verification code. (Note: “If not my operation”)

The entire communication takes place with a server that does not belong to the impersonated institution. Instead, the user has unknowingly shared personal and financial information with the attackers. 

Figure 4: The communication with C&C when trying to login with credentials

App experience

Once logged in, the application presents the victim with a seemingly legit cryptocurrency trading platform using the brand value of the impersonated organization as a lure. It looks more convincing with the dynamically changing prices.

Figures 5, 6: The Home and Trade pages that make use of information from Figure 8

Figure 7: The continuous pings to get the updated prices as seen in Figure 7

Customer support

Moreover, the presence of a customer support option provides the victim with additional confidence of being able to contact the financial institution (the scammers) with any questions or issues.

When we attempted this, we received the following:

Figures 8, 9: The customer support chat box presents the offer image and convincing text

Figure 10: Scam poster encouraging victims to “invest”

Customer support would be the first choice for the victim to complain about discrepancies, but the scammers cleverly set it up in such a way that it convinces the victim to “Recharge” and invest to reap (non-existent) benefits.

Making use of legitimate platforms that offer services to communicate with customers through customer support, the scammers offer “Customer Service Solutions” as seen below with this command and control’s response:

Figure 11: The URL for customer support as received from the C&C server

If the upward trend makes the victim interested in investing, the scammers have set up a “Funds Management” page allowing for the continued exploitation of the victim as seen below:

Figures 12, 13: The option to recharge and add funds to the account

The Recharge option mentioned above is the first go-to for a new victim to begin investing through the platform. 

The two investment options offered are “Online Pay” and “USDT,” where the victims were asked to chat with the customer support and pay online or transfer the funds to a provided BTC or ETH wallet and attach proof of the transaction.

Figures 14, 15, 16: The recharge options- Online Pay, BTC, ETH with “Important Notice”

Figures 17, 18: The BTC and ETH wallet’s transactions

What can you do?

It’s clear this campaign is just beginning and – as we mentioned – targeting a different bank already. Here’s what you can do:

From a consumer perspective, never download apps from third-party sites; rely solely on the App Store and Google Play. Be leery of apps that may have grammatical or other errors  – like “rganization code” which appeared in the app itself.  

From an enterprise perspective, Zimperium is the global leader in mobile device and app security, offering the only real-time, on-device, machine learning-based protection against Android, iOS and Chromebooks threats. We detect this attack and others like it. 

Please contact us to learn more. 

Previous Zimperium Mobile Security Blog PostPrevious Zimperium Mobile Security Blog Post Automate Mobile Application Security Testing from Jenkins

Elaborate Scam App Impersonates Leading Asian Bank; Victims Duped into ‘Investing’

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Mobile Security · Tagged: 2020, android, App Security, App Store, Apps, banking apps, blog, btc, chat, Chromebooks, cryptocurrency, custody, digital, digital assets, email, Enterprise, ETH, exchange, financial services, gains, Global, Google, information, institutional investors, Investing, investment, iOS, malware, Mobile, Mobile Security, more, note, other, perspective, Phishing, platforms, research, scam, scamware, security, tokenization, Traction, trade, trading, transaction, verification, wallet, ZIMPERIUM, zLabs

Jan 18 2021

Huobi Global Partners with BCB Group to Better Globalize Offerings

Huobi Global has partnered with BCB Group, to “better globalize” its offerings, according to a release. Huobi is a large digital asset firm based in Asia.

BCB Group is a payment services provider that enables clients with European fiat the ability to send fiat to crypto counterparties via “BLINC” in real-time, 24/7, 365 days a year.  BCB Group is a multi-jurisdictional regulated cryptocurrency service firms managed by an executive team have that has worked for incumbent financial services firms. BCB currently serves clients including Bitstamp, Coinbase, Galaxy, and Kraken. BCB Group provides payment services in 20+ currencies, FX, cryptocurrency liquidity, and digital asset custody.

Huobi states that working with BCB will enable it to bank its OTC desk with the firm as well as let them handle foreign exchange flow.

Ciara Sun, the VP and Head of Global Business at Huobi commented on the arrangement:

“We understand the importance of both a compliant, and streamlined service. Partnering with BCB allows us to offer a European fiat on and off ramping service that we know is in line with the laws of that area, but it also allows our customers in Europe to experience a smooth and hassle-free user experience.”

Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie, founder and CEO of BCB called the partnership important in furthering BCB’s mission to “promote future-friendly growth of the industry.”

“We are excited to play a part in Huobi’s global project.”

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: Asia, bcb group, bitstamp, Blockchain & Digital Assets, business, ceo, ciara sun, coinbase, compliant, crypto, cryptocurrency, Currencies, custody, digital, digital asset, Europe, exchange, financial services, founder, Global, huobi, Kraken, LINE, Offerings, oliver von landsberg-sadie, partnership, payment, payments, uk, united-kingdom, us, vp

Jan 15 2021

Representative Maxine Waters, Chair of House Committee on Financial Services, Asks President Elect Biden to Suspend “Midnight Regulations”

Representative Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, has sent a letter to President-elect Joe Biden asking him to “temporarily suspend any midnight regulations” promulgated by the Trump administration. This includes any rules that have not yet been published in the Federal Register.

Additionally, the letter asks the incoming administration to “postpone the effective dates of rules at least 60 days that have already been published in the Federal Register but which have not yet taken effect.”

Following the election, Representative Waters, along with her Democrat colleagues on the Committee, sent a separate letter to President-Elect Biden with a long list of requests to roll back “Deregulation under the guise of innovation.” Some of the requests may impact Fintechs that seek to provide new services to consumers and businesses that frequently improve upon existing practices.

While it is not yet entirely clear as to how the Biden administration will deal with innovation in financial services, some industry insiders remain concerned that greater regulatory scrutiny and a heightened focus on investor protection may hamper Fintechs and dim competition. Many Fintechs strive to provide financial services to underserved markets or, provide access to capital for early-stage firms.

The letter from Representative Waters is available here and embedded below.


Maxine Waters midnight_rulemaking_letter_1.14.21

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: Businesses, election, financial services, house committee on financial services, innovation, investor, markets, maxine waters, Politics, Legal & Regulation, president, Trump

Jan 13 2021

Plaid Has Decided to Terminate Pending Acquisition By Visa & Remain An Independent Company

Plaid, an open banking platform, announced on Tuesday it has decided to terminate its pending acquisition by Visa and will remain an independent company. The latest news on the acquisition was made just a little over two months after it was revealed that the U.S. Department of Justice has filed suit in federal court pertaining to the acquisition.

As previously reported, Visa announced in January 2020 it was planning to acquire Plaid for $5.3 billion. In purchasing Plaid, Visa was reportedly to jumpstart its push for digital prominence. Kelly called the acquisition a “natural evolution” as it connects consumers with digital financial services. At the time Al Kelly, CEO and Chairman of Visa, stated:

“The combination of Visa and Plaid will put us at the epicenter of the Fintech world, expanding our total addressable market and accelerating our long-term revenue growth trajectory.”

At the time of the lawsuit’s announcements, Visa refuted the suit:

“Visa strongly disagrees with the Department of Justice (DOJ), whose attempt to block Visa’s acquisition of Plaid is legally flawed and contradicted by the facts. This action reflects a lack of understanding of Plaid’s business and the highly competitive payments landscape in which Visa operates. The combination of Visa and Plaid will deliver substantial benefits for consumers seeking accessto a broader rangeof financial-related services, and Visa intends to defend the transaction vigorously.  As we explained to the DOJ, Plaid is not a payments company. Visa’s business faces intense competition from a variety of players – but Plaid is not one of them. Plaid is a data network that enables individuals to connect their financial accounts to the apps and services they use to manage their financial lives, and its capabilities complement Visa’s. Together, Visa and Plaid will deliver better digital experiences and more choice for consumers in managing their money and financial data. Visa is confident that this transaction is good for consumers and good for competition.”

Speaking about Plaid remaining an independent company, Zachary Perret, Co-Founder and CEO of Plaid, shared:

“Since founding Plaid 8 years ago, we have been maniacally focused on expanding access and improving financial outcomes for consumers, developers, and financial institutions – and the intent of joining Visa was to accelerate that work. Unfortunately, the pace of a multi-year regulatory review is not compatible with the fast-moving realities of a startup – and delaying close another year or more is not in the best interest of our customers, the financial system, or consumers themselves.”

Perret further revealed despite the struggles that happened in 2020 globally, the past year has been one of exciting growth for Plaid, with hundreds of new banks joined the Plaid platform, and more than 4,000 companies turned to the platform’s service as the infrastructure to support their businesses, including many of the largest Fortune 500 companies who are focused on bringing digital financial products to their customers. In regards to his 2021 predicts, Perret added he expects the year to be more of the same as 2020.

“In addition to our ongoing focus on helping companies of all sizes deliver digital financial products, we have made significant progress in the ways that we work with financial institutions. Delivering on the promise of open finance is in everyone’s best interest, and we’ll be working in lockstep with our customers and financial institutions to bring this to fruition globally.”

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: 2020, 2021, acquisition, Apps, Banking, Banks, business, Businesses, ceo, Co-founder, company, Court, data, digital, digital financial services, doj, finance, financial data, financial services, fintech, Infrastructure, market, money, more, news, open banking, payments, plaid, Products, revenue, startup, transaction, u.s., United States, us, visa, work, world

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 11
  • Go to Next Page »

Copyright © 2021 · Altitude Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in