Internet bank customers victims of cyber gang

ONLINE banking customers have fallen victim to a sophisticated attack by cyber criminals who have stolen hundreds of pounds from their accounts, an internet security firm warned.
By The Newsroom
Published 13th Aug 2010, 21:49 BST
Updated 13th Aug 2010, 21:50 BST

The attack, traced to a command and control centre in eastern Europe, has targeted one of the biggest financial institution's UK customer accounts, M86 Security said.

The cyber criminals stole an estimated 675,000 between July 5 and August 4 and the attack is still progressing.

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About 3,000 customer accounts are believed to have been affected, although exact figures are still being verified. The attacks were carried out when unprotected customers were infected with a Trojan – which managed to avoid detection by traditional anti-virus software – while browsing the internet.

The Trojan, known as a Zeus v3, steals the customer's online banking ID and hijacks their online banking sessions. It then checks the account balance and if it is more than 800, it transfers money to a different account. The bank targeted has not yet been named.

A report on the threat published by the security firm said: "Because cyber crime is a lucrative business, illegal operations such as (this) one...are on the rise."

Related topics:Europe