According to Kaspersky telemetry, the number of NFC-based attacks on Android smartphones aimed at stealing victims’ funds have surged by 188% in the first four months of 2026, compared with the same period in 2025.

From January to April 2026, Kaspersky cybersecurity solutions blocked 35,600 attacks of different Android malware families that use NFC techniques, including SuperCard X, PhantomCard, NGate, as well as other malicious modifications of NFCGate tool, compared to over 12,300 attacks blocked during the first four months in 2025.

According to Kaspersky, users in Russia face NFC relay mobile threats more often, nevertheless Kaspersky experts note that users in other regions — especially in Latin America and Europe — also encounter NFC-based attacks. At the end of 2025, Kaspersky predicted an increase in the number of attacks on NFC payments in 2026.

At the moment, there are two main schemes of NFC-based attacks:

Direct NFC. Fraudsters contact victims via messaging apps and, under the guise of verifying users’ identity, trick them into downloading malware that is disguised, for example, as a financial application. Victims are then prompted to tap their bank card to an infected smartphone, as well as to enter the card PIN. As a result, the card data is handed over to the attackers.

Reverse NFC. Scammers send users a malicious application and, using social engineering techniques, persuade them to set this application as a primary contactless payment method on their compromised smartphones.

Such application generates an NFC signal that ATMs recognise as the scammers’ card. Victims are then persuaded to go to an ATM and deposit funds into a ‘secure account’ using their infected phone. In reality, the scammers receive the victims’ money.

“While previously attackers relied on ‘direct NFC’ scheme, now the ‘reverse NFC’ appears more common,” comments Sergey Golovanov, chief security expert at Kaspersky.

“The danger of a newer, more sophisticated scheme is that this type of fraud is harder to detect and fight against, because victims themselves transfer money to the attackers’ accounts and such transactions are hard to distinguish from legitimate ones.

“We do not rule out that NFC relay malware itself continues to evolve and geography of attacks will expand. That’s why this threat should be further closely monitored.”

“The first publicly reported attacks that used a modified legitimate NFC tool occurred in late 2023. Those attacks were primarily detected in Europe. Then users from Russia and other regions faced similar mobile malware attacks.

Later it became known that cybercriminals packaged NFC relay malware into malware-as-a-service (MaaS) offering, potentially simplifying access to malicious tools for other attackers. NFC relay campaigns demonstrate how threat actors adapt and reuse new methods to steal users’ funds,” added Dmitry Kalinin, cybersecurity expert at Kaspersky.

Coscharis Technologies Limited, a leading Information Technology distribution company in the Sub-Saharan African market, in collaboration with Huawei, has officially launched the innovative Huawei IdeaHub S3 interactive board into the Nigerian market.

The unveiling ceremony, which attracted top industry stakeholders, partners, and technology enthusiasts, was held at the prestigious Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, in the heart of Nigeria’s commercial hub.

Speaking at the event, the Managing Director of Coscharis Technologies Limited, Dr. Sunday Mukoro, appreciated guests for attending and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to introducing cutting-edge technologies into the Nigerian market to accelerate the country’s technological advancement.

Dr. Mukoro described the Huawei IdeaHub S3 as a next-generation smart collaboration device equipped with advanced features designed to enhance productivity, communication, and digital collaboration across businesses, educational institutions, and organizations.

To further excite participants at the launch, he announced a special one-off 20 percent discount for early bird orders placed during the event.

Representing Huawei, Charles Chen, Huawei Nigeria eKit Manager, reiterated Huawei’s dedication to delivering world-class technology solutions tailored to modern workplace and learning environments. He emphasized that the IdeaHub S3 reflects Huawei’s continuous innovation in smart office and collaborative technologies.

The Huawei IdeaHub S3 is available in 65-inch, 75-inch, and 86-inch variants and comes loaded with several advanced features, including ergonomic design, ultra-low latency performance, 4K dual-lens camera with 5x zoom capability, and superior image quality with zero colour cast technology.

Other notable features include a 24-microphone array with up to 15-meter sound pickup range, high-fidelity stereo sound system, 4K soft light screen, intelligent tracking with auto-crop view, Acoustic Baffle 2.0 technology, ultrasonic projection, app multiplier functionality, and enhanced BYOM/BYOD collaboration capabilities.

The event climaxed with the formal unveiling of the Huawei IdeaHub S3, led by Dr. Sunday Mukoro alongside executives from Huawei and the Coscharis Huawei team, marking another milestone in the advancement of smart collaborative technology solutions in Nigeria

Pope Leo XIV called Monday for the “disarming” of artificial intelligence in his long-awaited manifesto on the rapidly developing technology, and warned of “new forms of slavery” behind its rise.

Leo, warned against “a race for ever more powerful algorithms and larger datasets, driven by the desire to secure geopolitical or commercial dominance”.

He presented his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity) in person at the Vatican, alongside AI experts including Christopher Olah, co-founder of US giant Anthropic.

Anthropic is embroiled in a legal battle with the US military after opposing the use of its technology for lethal autonomous warfare and mass surveillance.

At the presentation, Olah said AI companies operate “inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing”.

He welcomed input from outside actors like the Catholic Church, to “push events in a better direction” saying that “the questions raised by AI are bigger than the AI research community”.

In the encyclical, Leo also sounded the alarm over AI-directed weaponry, saying it was “not permissible to entrust lethal” decisions to tech.

Leo has repeatedly clashed with the White House over the Iran war and its use of religion to justify conflict.

The “just war” theory — espoused recently by the Trump administration — was “outdated”, Leo wrote, adding that “no algorithm can make war morally acceptable”.

AI could be worth up to $4.8 trillion by 2033, a 25-fold increase in a decade, while concentrating its profits in the hands of a limited few, according to the United Nations.

“Disarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of ‘armed’ competition,” the pope wrote.

“To disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity,” Leo wrote.

AI should be “human-friendly”, accessible to all, and open to discussion and debate, he added.

The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics has made the hot-button issue a cornerstone of his papacy by dedicating to it his first encyclical — a document that lays the basis for Church teaching and longer-term debate.

The manifesto references a range of cultural giants, from Greek philosopher Plato to Beethoven and his Ninth Symphony, even citing a character from JRR Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”.

“Magnifica Humanitas” was signed on May 15, the 135th anniversary of an 1891 encyclical by Leo XIII, which laid the foundations of the Church’s social doctrine during the Industrial Revolution.