Hackers Develop More Sophisticated IM Tool

Hackers have developed CarderIM, an Instant Message (IM) program they have encrypted recently to hide themselves when trying to sneak into communication channels as also escaping the punch of the law.

Hackers are employing the sophisticated CarderIM tool to sell credit card information or e-mail addresses as part of the underground economy engaged in fraudulent dealing with financial data, said Andrew Moloney, RSA's business director for financial services at the time of a presentation at the International e-Crime Congress in London on March 29, 2007.

CarderIM represents the enormous efforts hackers are putting to hide their activities on the Internet while using it to communicate with criminals elsewhere. They are even putting together money to customize their tools and places of work, Moloney said.

The logo of CarderIM has two half suns overlapping each other in red and yellow shades. It makes a parallel resemblance with the logo of MasterCard International Inc. The name CarderIM indicates the system of "carding" or converting illegally accessed credit card information into money.

In usual practice, cyber criminals who capture credit card data are not inclined to convert them into cash rather they look for buyers, similar miscreants online.

But as both parties get involved in the deal they have to watch out for "rippers" i.e., security experts or police who are accumulating information about them.

There is no report about how widely people are using CarderIM but it possibly has a limited distribution, Moloney said. A Google search has shown references to the program albeit a few and incomplete ones. There is also no easily available copy of the same.

Moloney said one could get hold of CarderIM by participating in any of the teams in which RSA has agents.

While making his presentation Moloney showed a CarderIM advertisement on the importance to "secure the screen". The program employs encrypted servers, based "offshore" that do not tap IM conversations. This implies that hackers needed an IM application that was more secure as the other free ones like ICQ, transmit clear textual messages capable of interception, Moloney reasoned. The hackers knew somebody was watching and hearing them, Moloney said.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 06-04-2007

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