I guess we should have expected it, as this is the summer of the superhero (I did check out Batman this weekend, and while it's overlong, I definitely enjoyed the escapades of the caped crusader), and we all know with superheros come supervillains.
According to the Business Scotsman (which I'm pretty sure isn't meant to refer to a superhero), banks around the United Kingdom are being warned of a new PC super bug designed to steal online banking info on a massive scale.
The virus is called Limbo 2 Trojan, and was designed specifically to gain access to financial data. Standard advice would be to keep the security firewall and anti-virus software fully up-to-date, but hackers are said to be so confident about this malware that they're paying upwards to $1,300 (£650) for a copy.
The security firm Prevx reported that the Trojan bug features a changeable shell with a pliable cloak coming in many guises and variants to try to fool security systems and slip past conventional signature-based anti-virus detection. This then generates fake information boxes on a compromised computer, asking the user to enter more information than usual, and as this is going on, passwords, credit card information and other personal details are transmitted to the malware's criminal operator to then exploit financially.
That's pretty scary stuff, now that a single data breach at a big firm is estimated to cost in the millions. But I just hope some security genius is currently toiling away in their fortress, cooking up some super security product to save the day...and who knows, maybe next year, the big summer blockbuster will be about a computer security superhero.
Leave a comment