European bank hit by cyber criminals
25/06/2014
Internet security company, Kaspersky Lab, has claimed to have found evidence of cyber-criminals stealing over £400,000 from 190 customers of a European bank.
The attack is thought to have happened in January 2014, mainly affecting Turkish and Italian banking customers, who are believed to have lost between 1,700 euros and 39,000 euros each.
However, whilst the authorities have been made aware of the incident, it’s believed that the cyber criminals managed to delete any traces of themselves before they could be identified – meaning it’s unlikely they will ever be caught.
Trojan programme
Kaspersky have code named the incident ‘ Luuuk’, and claimed it is likely that a Trojan programme was used to intercept financial data as soon as each victim logged into their online bank account.
They said that whilst they were still unsure over specific details in regards to what kind of Trojan programme was used, they “believe the malware used in this campaign could be a Zeus flavour.”
Zeus is a type of malware which can steal data from computers with the Windows Operating System installed on it, and was previously linked to cyber crimes targeting banks in 2007, when millions of pounds were stolen.
It is thought that Zeus malware could have been used by inserting information into the bank’s webpages as they were downloaded, therefore meaning that confidential information could be stolen.
The malicious server that was detected has now been successfully shut down, but despite this, there are still fears that the same thieves could return.
Alan Woodward, an independent security consultant described the attack as “very significant”. He said, “It’s not so much the absolute amount reported to be stolen, but the speed at which it was taken out”.
He also added: "The way you have to get this money into the real world involves sending it to real accounts and getting 'money mules' to take it out, so would require significant organisation."
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