Two New Malware Target UK Banks

Security experts at Trusteer have detected two new types of malware that target customers of UK banks. The security experts have revealed that malicious programs, "fly under the radar" of antivirus applications, steal banking login details of customers to commit fraud.

The malware are known as Agent.DBJP and Silon.var2. The detection rate of Silon.var2 in the UK stands at one in every five hundred systems, while the detection rate of Agent-DBJP is one in every five thousand computers.

In addition, Trusteer has found two Zeus botnets specifically designed for the UK. While the Zeus botnet is primarily known for its financial details stealing characteristics, the uniqueness of these botnets is their networks that confine to the UK-based computers and target only UK banks. Therefore, these variants have less possibility of being identified by antivirus solutions.

As per the security company, the detection rate of such type of malware stays between Zero and 20%.

Trusteer has reckoned that cyber criminals involved in the attack use only UK-centric spam lists. They infect websites to spread the malware. This indicates to a change in the financial criminal activities that need to be carefully addressed by the financial organizations.

Mickey Boodaei, CEO of Trusteer, has said that when a comparison is drawn between popular malware kits (like Ambler, Zeus and Torpig that target hundreds of enterprises and banks around the world and studied by all the security vendors), regional malware kits like Agent.DBJP and Silon.var2 are highly targeted, as reported by darkREADING on July 01, 2010.

Besides, the UK is not the only country that has been hit by such types of attacks. The security company has detected the similar operations in Germany and South Africa exclusively confined to these regions.

Amit Klein, Chief Technology Officer, Trusteer, has stated that if a bank in a particular region comes across a new malware piece, there are 80% chances that other banks would experience the similar attacks in future, as reported by Webuser on July 01, 2010.

Trusteer has claimed that the best method to deal with this problem for regional banks is work in cooperation with each other and share information with antivirus companies.

Related article: THE SPAM MAFIA

» SPAMfighter News - 7/13/2010