Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have warned of
an attempt by hackers to probe the defenses of internet bankers by
exploiting flaws in Internet Explorer and Firefox.
The emails, entitled "National Bank Closing and Blocking
Accounts without a notice!", claim that bank accounts are being
closed without warning. Users are directed to click on a web link
to read more information, and discover how to file a report if they
have suffered from the same problem.
The hackers are believed to have been targeting customers of the
National Australia Bank (NAB), but there are banks with similar
names in other countries whose users may feel tempted into clicking
on the link.
The emails claim that bank accounts are being
closed without warning.
Part of the email reads as follows:
Recently many accounts have been reported closed without
even a notice from the bank officials! Mostly it's business
accounts but regular checkings are also in trouble.
Latest Bank's Report showed much lower profit than expected
and their stocks hit lows for the last 5 years! But can it be
really a reason for breaking relations with entrepreneurs?
However, users who click on the link risk being infected by the
Troj/JSDl-A Trojan
horse, which collects information about which internet browser the
user is running, and the level of their security patching. The
Trojan horse can attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in both
Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
"It is possible that this is a probe by hackers wishing to
locate vulnerable computers prior to a concerted attack against
users of internet banking," continued Cluley.
Sophos's products have been automatically updated to protect
against the Troj/JSDl-A Trojan horse and the spammed email
messages.
Sophos continues to recommend companies protect their desktops
and servers with automatically updated
protection against viruses, spyware, and spam. Furthermore,
businesses should ensure that all of their computers are defended
with the latest security patches to protect against vulnerability
exploits often used by hackers.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.