Scam targets UK online banking

A network used to harvest online banking details has been exposed in the UK...

The so-called botnet is made up of around 100,000 machines, according to researchers in Israel. Cyber criminals in Eastern Europe, who have control of the machines, are collecting personal data from the PCs. This includes login details for online banks, credit and debit card numbers and other passwords. 

"100,000 computers being targeted by a trojan does not necessarily mean that 100,000 UK customers will have had their details successfully used by the fraudster. In the highly unlikely event that any one of the 23 million UK customers who bank online is an innocent victim as a result of this attack they can expect to get their money back."

The 100,000 Windows machines have been infected with a trojan known as Zeus, said Mr Klein. Mr Klein said this one was unusual because it used a new variant of the malware and also predominantly targeted people in the UK.

"We actually used the fraudsters' own data to assess the botnet and determine that it actually targets the UK." He said victims' computers had probably become infected by clicking on a link in a spam message or by visiting an infected website.

"It was probably a UK-specific website or a message sent out on a UK-specific spam mailing list," he said.

"The main brains behind Zeus are not breaking the law. Developing the trojan is not illegal, selling the trojan is not illegal, but using the trojan is."

Source: BBC