Sophisticated botnet steals more than $47M by infecting PCs and phones

[ShyWriter]

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Risk Assessment / Security & Hacktivism

Sophisticated botnet steals more than $47M by infecting PCs and phones

Intercepts SMS messages from bank, defeating two-factor authentication.

by Sean Gallagher - Dec 5 2012, 4:25pm EST

Behold—the Eurograbber, visualized.

Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock

A new version of the Zeus trojan—a longtime favorite of criminals conducting online financial fraud—has been used in attacks on over 30,000 electronic banking customers in Europe, infecting both their personal computers and smartphones. The sophisticated attack is designed to circumvent banks' use of two-factor authentication for transactions by intercepting messages sent by the bank to victims' mobile phones.

The malware and botnet system, dubbed "Eurograbber" by security researchers from Check Point Software and Versafe, was first detected in Italy earlier this year. It has since spread throughout Europe. Eurograbber is responsible for more than $47 million in fraudulent transfers from victims' bank accounts, stealing amounts from individual victims that range from 500 Euros (about $650) to 25,000 Euros (about $32,000), according to a report published Wednesday (PDF).

Read the complete story at: http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/12/sophisticated-botnet-steals-more-than-47m-by-infecting-pcs-and-phones/

Steve (with Thanks to Randy [Wide_Glide] )