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New Zeus Variant Targets Big European Banks

A variant of notorious Zeus computer Trojan is identified by the security researchers of Trend Micro, an anti-virus purveyor. This variant targets leading European banks.

Trend Micro furthers says that identified as TSPY_ZBOT.AZX, this most recent variant has made top consumer European Banks and the financial institutions with high-status clientele as its target.

U.K.-based Abbey National, popular as Abbey; UniCredit Group, Subsidiary Bank of Europe; the FIDUCIA Group; Germany's foremost IT service provider in cooperative financial system; Crédit Mutuel, one of the biggest retail banks of France, and HSBC of Honk Kong are among the major targeted firms.

Ivan Macalintal, Advanced Threats Researcher at Trend Micro' said that as of now no data is available to ascertain that aforementioned banks are actually targeted, according to a statement published by thenewnewinternet.com on March 26, 2010. He added that the reason behind including names of some institutions and banks are alert people.

Conspicuously, Zeus toolkit has been employed to develop this latest variant, which was particularly created to build malware. It makes feasible for cyber felons to make their own editions of malware which can be controlled remotely. It is then that the infected system comes under the Zeus botnet. It has been estimated that this botnet include millions of systems worldwide.

Also known as Zbot, Zeus is potential enough to steal login details for a broad spectrum of account types, from webmail and FTP to social networking. However, the most targeted data, by far, is online banking passwords and credit card information inserted in Web forms.

The firm adds that Zeus toolkit or crimeware platform's most recent iteration can cost in so far as $4,000. A series of separately created and sold modules can extend it. Depending on their utility, such add-ons can be purchased for prices between $500 and $10,000.

Besides, the security vendor also notes that domains which are used by this latest variant can also be spotted on the similar server in Serbia. Earlier, the IP address has also been associated with pharmacy spam campaigns and part of domains that host FAKEAV.

Trend Micro recommends all the users to install updated security software to safeguard their systems from being compromised by cyber miscreants who use the advanced toolkits available in the grey market.

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