Trojan steals money from bank accounts via 'training session'

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 21, 2011

Social engineering circumvents banking security

In a new method of stealing money from customer accounts, a variant of the SpyEye trojan invites the user to make a supposedly dummy transfer, thus socially engineering them into manually sending money to the attackers, security company Trusteer reports.

Most banks have secured their online banking systems by having transactions confirmed via a different channel, such as a confirmation code sent via a text message. This does not make it impossible to compromise the system (as smartphone versions of banking trojans show), but it does make it significantly harder for the attacker. However, the use of social engineering can make the latter invincible against such security checks.

Recently, we saw an example of a German banking trojan attempting to convince users to refund an erroneous transfer. Now a variant of SpyEye targets customers of a Spanish bank and invites them to take part in a 'training session'.

To do so, the malware modifies the content of the bank's website as viewed in the user's browser. When the user logs in, it displays a message about a new security system and invites the user to send some money to a dummy bank account, to learn how the system works. Of course, the account is real and owned by the attackers (or, more likely, by money mules working for them).

It is impossible for banking customers to be aware of every possible threat. Therefore, apart from running up-to-date security software, they should be alert to anything that looks remotely suspicious and in such cases contact their bank before proceeding.

More at Trusteer's blog here.

Posted on 21 September 2011 by Virus Bulletin

twitter.png
fb.png
linkedin.png
hackernews.png
reddit.png

 

Latest posts:

VBSpam tests to be executed under the AMTSO framework

VB is excited to announce that, starting from the Q3 test, all VBSpam tests of email security products will be executed under the AMTSO framework.

In memoriam: Prof. Ross Anderson

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of Professor Ross Anderson a few days ago.

In memoriam: Dr Alan Solomon

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of industry pioneer Dr Alan Solomon earlier this week.

New paper: Nexus Android banking botnet – compromising C&C panels and dissecting mobile AppInjects

In a new paper, researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Bansal provide details of a security vulnerability in the Nexus Android botnet C&C panel that was exploited in order to gather threat intelligence, and present a model of mobile AppInjects.

New paper: Collector-stealer: a Russian origin credential and information extractor

In a new paper, F5 researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Chaturvedi present a 360 analysis of Collector-stealer, a Russian-origin credential and information extractor.

We have placed cookies on your device in order to improve the functionality of this site, as outlined in our cookies policy. However, you may delete and block all cookies from this site and your use of the site will be unaffected. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to Virus Bulletin's use of data as outlined in our privacy policy.