A spam mail circulating as a Breaking
News item that says the Australia's Prime Minister
survived a heart attack, is spreading a Trojan that
steals user names and passwords of online bank accounts
in a nationwide cyber attack in Australia.
The mail starts off like this - "The Prime
Minister of Australia, John Howard have (sic) survived
a heart attack. Mr Howard, 67 years old, was at Kirribilli
House in Sydney, his prime residence, when he was
suddenly stricken. Mr Howard was taken to the Royal
North Shore Hospital where the best surgeons of Australia
are struggling for his life."
Security Experts at MicroWorld Technologies informs
that once a victim clicks on a link inside the mail,
purportedly leading to the 'The Australian' newspaper's
website, it shows a message - the page cannot be displayed.
Instead, what's displayed is the skill of the malware
writer as a Trojan is smartly slipped into the computer!
Sulabh Mahant, a Security Analyst at MicroWorld Technologies
says the Trojan belongs to 'Trojan.win32.VB' family.
"It has a keylogger component which can steal
user names and passwords when you visit websites of
specific banks like Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, Caja
Madrid, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and more."
"The backdoor in the Trojan opens a Web Server
in the attacked computer and takes orders from the
remote attacker, to perform whatever he or she pleases
to do on the system. This means the malware author
can not only log on to the victim's online account
and make transactions, but also take over the customer's
personal computer," he explains.
“While many Virus mails in the last few months
relied on real incidents like the death of Saddam
or the storm in Europe, this one comes from another
tribe of crooks who prefers cooking their own fake
news stories with some home made spice!,” says
Sunil Kripalani, Vice President, Global Sales and
Marketing, MicroWorld Technologies.
"Social Engineering is now becoming sharper
and finer as the attackers are delving deep into the
human psyche to come up with techniques like these,
which can readily prompt an action from the targeted
user. The news about a national leader's critical
condition is likely to evoke less suspicion than the
news on his or her death itself. And as we all can
see, so far this master stroke is reaping in rich
dividends for the people behind this malware,"
Mr Kripalani observes.
According to MicroWorld, Enterprises can safeguard
their users from such attacks using MailScan AntiVirus,
AntiSpam and Content Security solution at Mail Servers.
Desktop users are given real-time protection for their
email and web traffic with eScan, the AntiVirus and
Content Security software for desktops and Mail Servers.
MicroWorld
MicroWorld Technologies (www.mwti.net)
is the developer of the world's most advanced AntiVirus,
Content Security and Firewall software eScan,
MailScan,
and eConceal.
MicroWorld
Winsock Layer (MWL) is the revolutionary technology
that powers most of MicroWorld products enabling them
to achieve several certifications and awards by some
of the most prestigious testing bodies, notable among
them being Virus Bulletin, Checkmark, TUCOWS, Red
Hat Ready and Novell Ready.
To learn more, kindly visit http://www.mwti.net.
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