Customers were duped into downloading the rakin.zip or raking.exe files that were infected by the haxdor.ki Trojan...
January 30, 2007 (Press Release) --
SAN FRANCISCO, CA January 26, 2006 - PC Tools warned online bank customers worldwide - but particularly in Sweden where attacks have been targeted - to beware of a rogue anti-spam program that captures personal data and relays this information to cyber thieves.
"Customers were duped into downloading the rakin.zip or raking.exe files that were infected by the haxdor.ki Trojan," said Michael Greene, Vice President of Product Strategy, who added: "Our award-winning Spyware Doctor with its heuristics based Keylogger Guard would have caught this threat."
The rogue anti-spam program stole the identities of more than 250 customers and $1.5 million from Sweden’s largest bank over the past three months, according to sources.
Figures for the first six months of 2005 showed a 55 percent rise in losses through online banking fraud to $44 million compared to $29 million in the previous year in the UK.
The losses were mainly due to phishing attacks, which increased to 5,000 in the first half of this year, compared with only 312 for the same period in 2005, according to UK sources.
This New Year will see additional threats by fraudsters targeting bank customers - many in the United States, experts say. Last year millions of dollars were taken from US banks and brokerages. In many cases, banks around the world have changed their policies to no longer reimburse customers for their losses. British banks, for instance abandoned this practice in 2004.
"We want our customers to know that they must not only update their anti-spyware to protect against cyber criminals using dangerous Trojans to track their keystrokes and steal sensitive password data, but they must make sure they do not download dangerous software," Greene said.
In the Swedish case, the Trojan software stole user information before displaying an error message asking the customer to resend the data. Criminals, according to reports, then acquired the key access codes needed to transfer money from the account. Despite having a list of 121 suspects, the bank and authorities have not been able to stop the attacks.
According to reports, information was sent to servers in America before being forwarded to Russia where the perpetrators initiated the attacks.
Greene reminds bank customers, who use the Internet for transactions, to download free anti-virus, anti-spyware, and a new firewall tool (Firewall Plus can be downloaded at: http://www.pctools.com/firewall/.) from PC Tools.com.
ABOUT PC TOOLS™
PC Tools is a global security software leader with products including award-winning Spyware Doctor along with effective anti-spyware products. PC Tools is a leader in real-time anti-spyware, security, and utility technologies and has a number of key patents pending. PC Tools security products are available in major retail stores and have been downloaded over 125 million times.
The PC Tools Malware Research Center monitors trends and emerging spyware issues and provides security solutions for the consumer and enterprise marketplace. The company is headquartered in Sydney, with offices in San Francisco, London, Dublin, Melbourne, and Kiev. PC Tools has a global network of distributors, resellers, and retailers.
"Customers were duped into downloading the rakin.zip or raking.exe files that were infected by the haxdor.ki Trojan," said Michael Greene, Vice President of Product Strategy, who added: "Our award-winning Spyware Doctor with its heuristics based Keylogger Guard would have caught this threat."
The rogue anti-spam program stole the identities of more than 250 customers and $1.5 million from Sweden’s largest bank over the past three months, according to sources.
Figures for the first six months of 2005 showed a 55 percent rise in losses through online banking fraud to $44 million compared to $29 million in the previous year in the UK.
The losses were mainly due to phishing attacks, which increased to 5,000 in the first half of this year, compared with only 312 for the same period in 2005, according to UK sources.
This New Year will see additional threats by fraudsters targeting bank customers - many in the United States, experts say. Last year millions of dollars were taken from US banks and brokerages. In many cases, banks around the world have changed their policies to no longer reimburse customers for their losses. British banks, for instance abandoned this practice in 2004.
"We want our customers to know that they must not only update their anti-spyware to protect against cyber criminals using dangerous Trojans to track their keystrokes and steal sensitive password data, but they must make sure they do not download dangerous software," Greene said.
In the Swedish case, the Trojan software stole user information before displaying an error message asking the customer to resend the data. Criminals, according to reports, then acquired the key access codes needed to transfer money from the account. Despite having a list of 121 suspects, the bank and authorities have not been able to stop the attacks.
According to reports, information was sent to servers in America before being forwarded to Russia where the perpetrators initiated the attacks.
Greene reminds bank customers, who use the Internet for transactions, to download free anti-virus, anti-spyware, and a new firewall tool (Firewall Plus can be downloaded at: http://www.pctools.com/firewall/.) from PC Tools.com.
ABOUT PC TOOLS™
PC Tools is a global security software leader with products including award-winning Spyware Doctor along with effective anti-spyware products. PC Tools is a leader in real-time anti-spyware, security, and utility technologies and has a number of key patents pending. PC Tools security products are available in major retail stores and have been downloaded over 125 million times.
The PC Tools Malware Research Center monitors trends and emerging spyware issues and provides security solutions for the consumer and enterprise marketplace. The company is headquartered in Sydney, with offices in San Francisco, London, Dublin, Melbourne, and Kiev. PC Tools has a global network of distributors, resellers, and retailers.
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