Asprox Virus Attacks Several Websites in UK

Cyber criminals have hacked into key consumer and government Websites in Britain, enabling them to snatch the personal information of anyone using these sites, as reported by TIMES ONLINE on July 23, 2008.

Meanwhile, it is suspected that hackers from Eastern Europe are planting the virus called 'Asprox' onto over a thousand of British sites, including those of the National Health Service and an area council during the 2nd and 3rd week of July 2008.

According to the security specialists, the Asprox virus alarmingly different from common viruses that are spread through hoax emails and uncontrolled Websites. Further, different from other viruses, Asprox stays undetected on conventional sites, posing a risk to any visitor.

The virus automatically installs itself onto a visitor's PC and enables an attacker to access the victim's financial information. Although the exact number of people affected on account of the virus is yet to be known, security specialists estimate that at least 2 Million computers globally might be infected.

Furthermore, according to security researchers, vulnerable computer users also get infected with a Trojan that joins their systems to the Asprox, a less serious malware that started spreading in May. Earlier, the operators of Asprox restricted themselves to phishing attacks but now they are hunting for Web flaws that allow them to inject SQL codes into Web pages.

Sometimes the writers of the malicious program use tricks of social engineering to install the malware pretending that the program is a codec needed to watch a video.

Meanwhile, according to Bob Burls, Detective Constable of the Metropolitan Police computer crime division, infection rates due to Asprox has suddenly increased and it has even got into an local council's Web page, as reported TIMES ONLINE on July 23, 2008.

Similarly, Internet security company - Finjan - recently reported finding of over 1,000 Websites infected with an attacking software kit called Asprox, which exploits flaws in an vulnerable site's programming to add an attack code while hiding it safely. This code subsequently hunts for browser flaws and on finding any, downloads malicious programs onto the PC.

Related article: Asprox Botnet Becomes Alive, Uses Old SQL Injection Tricks

» SPAMfighter News - 05-08-2008

All SPAMfighter products offer a free trial!

SPAMfighter is a free spam filter for Outlook, Outlook Express,Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail and Thunderbird.

Optimize your Slow PC for better performance. Try FREE scan now

Disk space recovery
and disk optimization. Try FULL-DISKfighter free

SPAMfighter Exchange Module is a Spam filter for Exchange server - Free 30 days trial.

Remove Spyware with SPYWAREfighter - Free 30 days trial

Antivirus software for your Windows PC - Free 30 days trial