Stealth Keylogger Used to Invade Victim Bank Accounts
Sunday, March-05-2006
As reported by several European news sources in early February 2006 a gang of
Russian and Ukrainian hackers have been arrested for the alleged theft of over €1m
(1 million Euros – approximately 1.22 million USD) from French bank accounts.
The electronic thefts occurred by infecting the victims’ computers with a key logging
program embedded in emails and malicious web sites. The key logging software
was particularly stealthy in that it remained essentially inactive until a victim
used their computer to contact their bank online. At that time it would record
login and password information and send that via the Internet to a site to be
retrieved by the computer crime gang.
With the login credentials in their possession the hackers could then access
the victim’s financial accounts at will and monitor balances and transactions.
Once they determined there was a sufficient level of funds to be worth the risks
they would transfer the monies to accounts of third parties known as mules in
the jargon of money laundering. Mules are awarded typically a 5-10% commission
for aiding in the transfers and may or may not be aware of their participation
in the electronic crime schemes.
Quoting security expert, Nicolas Woirhaye, from the article:
“He said the best way to beat pirates was to use up-to-date anti-virus software.
“All the French victims were trapped because they didn’t have any [computer] protection,” he said.
To which we would add that not only is a quality anti virus program with up to date signatures a must but so is one of the top anti spyware software programs. Information gathering programs such as key loggers aren’t always detected by traditional anti virus software but are one of the primary areas of focus for the high end anti spyware products.
Posted by mike.shafer on 03-05-2006 at 01:03 am
Posted in PC Security
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