Russian Authorities Nabbed “Pinch” Trojan Writers

The writers of "Pinch" Trojan, malicious sofatware used for stealing variety of information, would soon be prosecuted. Nikolay Patrushev, Head of Russia Federal Security Services, said that the persons who were involved in it had been recognized and very soon legal actions would be taken against them, as per a blog posting by Kasper sky Lab in Viruslist on December 19, 2007.

Two persons, identified as Ermishkin and Farkhutdinov, have been arrested in this context. The Russian Police said that the charges against them are same as in case of German Sven Jaschan, which came into light in 2005 for forming the Netsky and Sasser worms that infected thousands of computers worldwide.

As per F-Secure, Pinch Trojan has a well developed user interface which could be used to pilfer information from others' computers. It is capable to steal e-mail account passwords, pilfer information on passwords stored in Opera and Firefox browsers, Snap Screenshots and the Internet Explorer.

Pinch, a Trojan creation toolkit, can be easily obtained from the illegal hacking forums. This toolkit is used by virus authors to corrupt millions of computers. Easy availability of toolkit in the black market facilitates script kidders to order for a customized version of the Trojan. Moreover, they can ask also buy requisite technical support from the market. Pinch is available in thousands of versions, both in English and Russian language. Pinch's sellers sell the Trojan according to the requirements of hackers and if necessary, they incorporate customized features in it.

The plundered information is encrypted before sending it to hacker. The most amazing feature of Pinch is that it doesn't let the victim know about the malicious activities carried on by hacker. It integrates the victim's computer with botnet that is used to send spam and for other hacking attacks.

Kaspersky said that it is very difficult to predict the extent of losses incurred due to this malicious software over the past years as it has first come into notice.

Some industry experts have warned people that they should be cautious while disclosing their personal information on the Internet. This security threat to computers users cannot be completely warded off as the source of the Trojan is circulating on the Internet.

Related article: Russian Hackers Break into NOAA to Push Pills

» SPAMfighter News - 1/8/2008