PC-Virus of 2005 Threatening Japanese Bank Accountholders, Warns Symantec

According to security researchers from Symantec the security company, a PC-virus created particularly for phishing Japanese citizens off their banking credentials back in 2005 is now again wreaking havoc.

The company observes that Japanese cyber-criminals lately started utilizing a familiar PC-worm known as Infostealer.Jginko that has not been utilized often; however, if it contaminates a PC, it can effortlessly expose credit card details to the hackers.

Moreover, Symantec says that its researchers have been tracking e-mails carrying an attachment containing the Infostealer.Jginko and that they've posted alerts of this malware.

Also, looking genuine, the e-mail poses as a message from a major Japanese financial institution, while the sender's id lucidly enough does not find place in the authorized Internet site of the bank, since the domain of the id is a 2nd-stage one rather than a wholly registered one.

The e-mail tells its receivers that they should get personal code cards renewed i.e. cards consisting of codes necessary for fulfilling transactions.

Actually, code cards are obtainable to customers from their banks and they've numbers arranged in a matrix, which's utilized for completing Internet transactions.

The said cards are a means of safeguard from illegitimate access or transaction, though they may as well be channels for draining bank accounts, Symantec additionally states.

Meanwhile the e-mail asks the recipient for viewing an attachment so he may execute the procedure for renewal. The attachment when run exhibits an online form that the user requires completing.

But upon completing the form and submitting it, the virus quickly and surreptitiously records a screenshot as well as dispatches it to certain Internet Protocol address with the help of an already defined username and password. According to Symantec, during investigation it didn't find the remote site as having the screenshots, suggesting that the virus hardly affects any user alternatively; the cyber-crook replicates and then erases the data routinely.

The security company states in addition that the above kind of socially-engineered assaults proves successful against end-users without the necessary security awareness, and concludes that the targeted bank in Japan has issued an alert on its Internet site about the spam assaults in question.

Related article: PC Tools Claims Vista as Less Secured

» SPAMfighter News - 9/24/2011