Elaborate 'pharming' attack targeted 50 banks
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Security researchers are working to shut down a hacking attack targeting Internet banking users of at least 50 financial institutions in the U.S. and Europe.
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(InfoWorld) - The web site of Bank of India, one of India's leading banks, was restored early Tuesday. The bank had closed the site on Friday after it found that the site had been hacked, and was dispensing malicious code. Sunbelt Software Inc., a provider of security software in Clearwater, Florida, had on Thursday alerted users on its blog that the bank's site had been compromised, and advised them not to visit the site. Unidentified hackers had inserted malicious code into the bank's main web page, a senior employee familiar with the situation said on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The bank's designated spokesman on this issue was not immediately available for comment. As a result, persons coming to the bank's web site were likely to be temporarily redirected to another site where Trojans and other malware were downloaded onto their computers, the employee said. The user was then brought back to the bank web-site. The bank's IT staff thought they had the situation under control Friday morning, until they found that each time they changed the index page for the web site, it was immediately replaced by the hackers. The bank then decided to bring the web site down. "The web site was hosted externally by a hosting company in the U.S.," the employee said. The bank has since changed the company hosting the service, though the employee clarified that the change in hosting provider had been on the cards even before the hacker attack. The attack on the web site did not however affect the bank's online banking operations, according to the employee. The bank's customers access online banking services through a link on the home page of the bank's web site. The online banking service is provided to users from well-protected servers hosted and monitored within the bank by Hewlett-Packard Co., the employee said. The bank is as yet not clear about the identity of the hackers, although Sunbelt suggested in its blog that it was a criminal gang, called the Russian Business Network (RBN). "We have called for the logs from the hosting provider in the U.S., and we may have some definite information then," the employee said.
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Thousands of credit card numbers and other personal data may have been compromised.
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The attorney general's request that banks send spam to warn of phishing has some befuddled.
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Drive-by pharming A security researcher says he has observed criminals using a new form of attack that causes victims to visit spoofed banking pages by secretly making changes to their high-speed home routers.â¦
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A distributed denial-of-service attack that disrupted Web-based systems at credit card payment processing firm Authorize.NetÂ earlier this week is indicative of a sharp increase in the number of cyberattacks being targeted at specific companies and driven by profit motives on the part of the hackers who launch them.
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Several hundred pornography sites are surprising unwitting users with a smorgasbord of exploits via Mpack, the already notorious hacker toolkit that launched massive attacks from a network of more than 10,000 compromised domains.
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Phishers spoofed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation&#39;s (FDIC) Web site again Thursday and using bogus e-mails, tried to entice consumers to sign up for non-existent service that tracks
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(InfoWorld) - Online criminals have launched a widespread Web attack that has turned tens of thousands of legitimate Web sites into weapons, security vendors said Monday. The attack began late last week, and by Monday morning, more than 10,000 Web sites had been compromised, according to security firms Trend Micro and Websense. Although attackers have hit targets around the world lately, more than 80 percent of the infections are on Italian Web sites, said David Perry, global director of education with Trend Micro. "Almost all of the Web sites we saw this weekend were in Italy; We were referring to it as 'Italian Job 3,' in-house," he said referring to the Michael Caine heist film that was remade in 2003. Most of the infected Web sites are legitimate, Perry added. "These aren't porn sites, they aren't gambling sites; they are hotels, fish-and-tackle sites, tourist information," he said. Even local Italian government Web sites have been infected, and most of the affected sites are hosted by one of Italy's largest Web service providers, Trend Micro said. Infected Web sites contain a short piece of HTML "iFrame" code that redirects the victim's Web browser to a server that attempts to infect the victim's computer using a tool called "MPack." MPack can launch a variety of different attacks against the victim's PC, depending on which browser and operating system is running. It exploits a number of well-known bugs that have already been patched, meaning it is dangerous to people who are not running an updated version of their browser, Perry said. "If they have a browser that hasn't been patched, their machine is going to be compromised." The malware can be used to attack Internet Explorer, Firefox, and even the Opera browser. MPack installs a keylogger and a Trojan downloader program on compromised PCs so that the attackers can monitor the victim's activity and run other unauthorized programs on the computer. "They can turn your computer into anything they want," Perry said. The U.S. FBI is investigating the matter, according to Perry. "This is an absolutely criminal activity," he said. "They're attaching keyloggers to many thousands of people's computers without their consent" While the technique these criminals are using to infect PCs isn't new, "an attack on this scale is notable for both its ambition and the coordination involved in pulling something like this off," said Chris Boyd, a researcher at FaceTime Communications. "Users should ensure they're fully patched as the hackers are relying on you running exploitable systems to gain entry into your PC."ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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The tricky business of thwarting online fraud Logistic and technical issues have hampered the rollout of a system designed to thwart phishing scams by UK bank Barclays.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - The Department of Homeland Securityâs Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) raised a few eyebrows in late November when it sent a warning out to U.S. banks and financial institutions about a possible cyber attack by Islamic militants. The alert, dated Nov. 30, was triggered by a posting on what the DHS considered an Islamic jihadi Web site calling for hackers to attack U.S. financial and banking Web sites, apparently to protest the detention of Muslims at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. However, the warning was heavily qualified, with DHS calling the threat âmore aspirational than operational.â Financial firms downplayed the danger, too. One security executive at a major brokerage told InfoWorld that the warning was a ânon-event.â But could repeated warnings about such non-events eventually make critical infrastructure owners deaf to DHSâs warnings? InfoWorld Senior Editor Paul F. Roberts recently chatted with John Carlson, senior director of security and risk Assessment at BITS, a financial-services industry consortium focused on security, fraud, and risk management, about the DHS warning and state of the public-private partnership on cybersecurity. InfoWorld: Iâm guessing that your members received the US-CERT warning about the cyber terrorist attack? John Carlson: There were two messages sent: the first was [Nov. 30]; then a second revision came out [Dec. 1]. The gist of it was that these reports were not corroborated. IW: What was the reaction of BITS members to the warning? JC: Our members have an âall hazardsâ approach to business-continuity planning. Theyâve got well-developed approaches that have been bolstered since 9/11. In response to new regulatory requirements, firms have done a lot to improve backup, theyâve done tests with the various exchanges. Theyâre also working in closer harmony with the federal government to share information on threats and vulnerabilities. I think thereâs a spirit of appreciation that the government is willing to share information with the financial services industry. The firms take that information into account in responding and activating their business continuity plans. IW: How do your members apply information like this that comes from DHS? JC: Iâm not sure I can give a blanket answer. Each firm has its own mechanisms for gathering information. Risk-management professionals at these firms read the paper and understand the military conflicts and theyâre mindful of that. They take it into account when they have employees traveling. Theyâll monitor where they are. With the [bird flu] pandemic issue, firms were monitoring that closely and trying to figure out what impact it would have on their organizations. IW: Is there a danger from these warnings of creating a âBoy Who Cried Wolfâ situation, where firms begin to disregard the warnings? JC: Thereâs always a concern about the crying-wolf syndrome. But our firms appreciate getting the information even if itâs not corroborated. A continuous flow of information helps build trust between the private and public sectors. IW: Was this warning about the jihadist threat something that your members see all the time, or was this an unusual kind of warning from DHS? JC: I think the warning came across the transom at a high level [saying] âpay attention to this.â So it was different from what we normally get. Weâre getting a steady stream of information on threats and vulnerabilities and a range of things. For example, if thereâs a known virus thatâs being perpetrated in [the United States] or against a financial institution. Weâre also getting information on political changes around the world. IW: Do you think DHS has its arms around the cybersecurity problem? JC: My personal opinion is that the government has some capabilities, but not all capabilities. In general, our firms would like more information, but there are many reasons why if (the government) has the information they donât provide it. But itâs a touchy question. People have lots of different views. Â  IW: Do you feel like your members are getting all the information they need? JC: Thereâs some filtering, but I donât have information to compare or validate what the filter is. We talk about issues through coordinating councils that meet quarterly. Itâs a two way conversation.Â
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The FDIC on Friday issued an alert about an increasingly common e-mail scam designed to steal personal information and money from millions of unwary consumers.
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Investigators have found five security breaches at a government-run laboratory at the heart of a foot and mouth outbreak which triggered a major scare in August, the BBC reported Friday.
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Five advisories issued by security firm Secunia warn that a pop-up attack could expose users to phishing scams on most Web browsers.
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As it was previously reported, the gang attacked the homes of two Northern Bank&#39;s officials late Sunday. The robbers took officialsâ families as hostages and stole about â¤22 million in cash prepared for the Northern Bankâs 95 branches and ATMâs.
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Net payment system Worldpay is under attack from hackers delaying transaction times for hundreds of online retailers.
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On 20 November 2004, a major malicious-code attack emerged targeting European Web sites via banner ads. This two-step attack exploits two previously identified security vulnerabilities: the Bofra (or IFRAME