Taking Back the ID
In my previous column, I talked generally about the problems Trojan viruses and phishing cause online banking customers. Here I'll explain the ways new Trojans capture online users' personal information and the countermeasures that help slow widespread identity theft.
HOW THEY WORK
Banking Trojans have been around for years, but the new third-generation ones are nastier and more advanced. Hackers design this malicious software with one goal in mind: to steal your money. Marcia Savage, features editor of Information Security Magazine, analyzed a study by Panda Security, a firm focused on banking Trojan research, to explain how the insidious malware tries to steal users' banking credentials. She wrote about her findings in "Study: Banking Trojans Dynamic, Insidious" in the March 3, 2009 issue of the magazine.
"Once a computer is infected," she wrote, "attackers monitor the user's browsing habits by registering as a browser helper object, search for window titles or Web addresses in the browser, and use key-loggers, form capture, false forms and other techniques to steal data."