Originally published August 20 2005
Online security firm uncovers identity theft ring affecting up to 50 banks
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Sunbelt Software security company says that an identity theft ring is stealing information (including credit card details, Social Security numbers, usernames, passwords, instant-messaging chat sessions and search terms) from up to 50 banks through the use of keyloggers, reports C-Net news.
A major identity theft ring has been discovered that affects up to 50 banks, according to Sunbelt Software, the security company that says it uncovered the operation.
The data collected includes credit card details, Social Security numbers, usernames, passwords, instant-messaging chat sessions and search terms.
In the two days that Sunbelt has been monitoring the file, the company has seen confidential financial details of customers of up to 50 international banks, said Eric Sites, vice president of research and development at the Clearwater, Fla.-based security software maker.
Sunbelt said that the people behind the scheme have obtained access to a considerable amount of bank information, including details about one company account containing more than $380,000 and another account that has "readily accessible" funds of more than $11,000.
Patrick Jordan, a Sunbelt employee, discovered the identity theft ring while researching a variant of CWS, which is a malicious program that hijacks Web searches and disables security settings in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser.
"During the course of infecting a machine, he (Jordan) discovered that a) the machine he was testing became a spam zombie and b) he noticed a call back to a remote server.
He traced back the remote server and found an incredibly sophisticated criminal identity theft ring," Eckelberry wrote in the blog posting.
Users of Windows XP who have not installed Service Pack 2 are particularly vulnerable, as the code could be automatically downloaded without the user's knowledge, Sites said.
"If you have an unpatched Windows machine, when you go to the URL it will automatically download everything from the Web site, including the Trojan.
In March of this year, Britain's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit foiled an attempt to steal about $390 million from the Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui.
In that case, keyloggers were used to relay passwords and access information to the criminals who intended to transfer the funds electronically.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml