With e-banking attacks and threats to users’ bank accounts and passwords on the rise, cyber analysts have detected a Trojan associated with e-banking, which specifically targets small businesses.
Researchers from internet security firm Trend Micro have detected a spam run randomly targeting the employees of several companies. A number of employees received email notifications purporting to be from their respective companies’ system administrators. These emails reminded them to update their systems due to a recent server software upgrade. The link in the emails used several sub-domains that resolved to the same IP address.
This is the Zeus botnet comprising a ZBOT Trojan and Trojan spyware variants, which is most commonly associated with e-banking attacks targeting small businesses. Its creators often preyed on small and medium-sized companies that may not have a full-time IT/security staff and who rely on one or two people to handle their bank accounts and payroll online.
“First introduced by Rock Phishers early this year (around April), the malware paved the way for the rise of easy-to-use kits that yielded professional-looking phishing pages. They proliferated either via email or exploits and were typically packed, making their codes harder to read in the course of analysis,” said Abhinav Karnwal Product Marketing Manager APEC Trend Micro.