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Bank Accounts Vulnerable For Victims of ZeuS Trojan Variant 'Gameover'

tsu doh nimh writes "Organized crooks have begun launching debilitating cyber attacks against banks and their customers as part of a smoke screen to prevent victims from noticing simultaneous high-dollar cyber heists, the FBI is warning. The thefts, aided by a custom variant of the ZeuS Trojan called 'Gameover,' are followed by distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against banks and the victim customers. The feds say the perpetrators also are wiring some of the money from victim organizations directly to high-end jewelry stores, and then sending money mules to pick up the pricey items."

18 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. Ha! Stupid criminals by Baloroth · · Score: 3, Funny

    I keep all my money in my house! Perfectly safe. No organized crooks gonna steal my money.

    --
    "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    1. Re:Ha! Stupid criminals by fsckmnky · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Perhaps you have not heard the term "quantitative easing."

    2. Re:Ha! Stupid criminals by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Funny

      I would certainly not describe the current US government as 'organized'.

      The Keystone Cops come to mind as a role model.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    3. Re:Ha! Stupid criminals by Dunbal · · Score: 3, Informative

      That is not specific to a country. Any government will do.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    4. Re:Ha! Stupid criminals by Dunbal · · Score: 2

      Yep, it's not like you're going to be taking a hit on the lost interest, either. When you factor in service charges, it costs you money to keep your money in a bank. And if they can't even keep your money safe, well, what is the point?

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  2. Re:Still clicking the links in emails? by fsckmnky · · Score: 4, Funny

    Who can resist an important message from Sandra, the topless 3 boobed Nigerian government official charged with distributing $10 million dollars in oil industry windfall profits and free samples of Viagra ?

  3. Re:Still clicking the links in emails? by gvaness · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds hot, you got a link?

  4. Re:Still clicking the links in emails? by Fluffeh · · Score: 2

    I find your comment interesting and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

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    Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
  5. Re:Still clicking the links in emails? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    You go to a legitimate page which has been compromised, or is hosting adds and the add site has been compromised. The page attempts to exploit your browser, usually with a disclosed vulnerability. If you haven't applied that latest patch you get knocked over without clicking any links.

    After any big even there are usually malicious sites near the top of the Google rankings which will attempt to exploit any one who lands on them. After the tsunami in Japan there were fake news results in the top 10 with in 2-3 hours doing this.

  6. Re:Still clicking the links in emails? by DrgnDancer · · Score: 4, Informative

    SEO=Search Engine Optimized. So it's like this. Your Flash Player is a month out of date and has a secuity hole. You search for a popular term. Maybe something game related, or porn, or whatever. Bad guy has a carefully crafted page that has been SEOed to appeared fairly high in the rankings for your popular search. The exploit is in the Flash on the page. You don't have to do anything except click the link (which seems perfectly legitimate).

    Of course if you've got No-script or Ad Block, you're probably fine, but most people don't use stuff like that. See above for "People expect their computers to be tools" rant. What they did might have been mildly stupid: They should upgrade their plugins, they should read links more carefully, they should use some kind of script blocker, but it falls well within what most normal users would consider reasonable. Still infected though.

    --
    I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
  7. Re:Still clicking the links in emails? by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 4, Informative

    A large attack vector for SEO poisoning is image searches. Unless you're running with NoScript or JS disabled, all you have to do is click on the wrong link in a random image search result, and the rest happens in the background. While you're sitting there looking at images of Martin Luther King, Jr. (and wondering why there's a photo of chocolate cake on the page as well, and one of some puppies), a multi-exploit probe script starts up in the background, quickly figures out what OS, browser and general environment you're using (think malware author's version of 'make'), and then downloads and executes an exploit path custom to your configuration.

    Of course, the term "drive-by download" does also include the FakeAV stuff that automatically downloads and sits in your download folder, waiting for you to say, "hey, what's this zipfile doing in here with the 'reallysuperantivirus.exe' inside? I guess I should run it to find out!"

  8. Re:Still clicking the links in emails? by DeadCatX2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One day, I was browsing Google Image Search, looking to identify an ambiguous connector. (it ended up being a connector from JST)

    Suddenly, I'm greeted with a UAC prompt. Having done nothing to instigate a UAC prompt, I immediately killed firefox. Nonetheless, there was a rogue process on my machine that was attempting to gain root access by desperately popping up anti-virus messages. Being an intelligent user, I discovered what process was responsible and promptly killed and deleted the offending binary from my machine.

    I never even clicked anything.

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    :(){ :|:& };:
  9. Re:Still clicking the links in emails? by dissy · · Score: 2

    While having out of date software is asking for troubles, lately with the thriving zero-day exploit market, even performing that task is not guaranteed to protect you.

    It really requires nothing more than clicking the first link in Google.

    Scary world. But aside that, you can't possibly blame the person using the web for a zero day (That's addressed to you Mr GP, not the parent)

  10. Re:Still clicking the links in emails? by Dunbal · · Score: 2

    No one can program their own space shuttle launch. That's why it takes a team - even for NASA.

    As for YOUR post - if you drive a car you are expected to know a) how an internal combustion engine works and what oil is for and why you should check it once in a while b) whether your car runs on diesel or gasoline/petrol c) how to change a flat tire and d) when to take your car in for service/repairs. If you don't know the preceeding, then you really shouldn't be driving a car. Likewise with computers.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  11. Re:Still clicking the links in emails? by bmo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    >A large attack vector for SEO poisoning is image searches

    I personally ran into this while looking for flooding pictures in Warwick RI a couple of springs back.

    Nearly half the Google results on the first page were SEO malware sites.

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    BMO

  12. Re:Still clicking the links in emails? by cavreader · · Score: 2

    Too many people confuse the right to privacy with the right of anonymity. Personal information on people existed prior to the Internet and IP addresses. Things like phone books, marriage records, birth certificates, home/auto loans, and property deeds which can be obtained at any local government that keeps track of property taxes. Utility bills, drivers licenses, education records, insurance policies, and bank records have been available easily with or without any subpoena for over the past 50+ years. Earn no income that is subject to state or federal taxes otherwise that information will also be available in hard copy. The Internet just makes collecting this information faster. If you really want privacy unplug, store your money in your mattress, use cash and barter for all financial transactions , never enter into any type of agreement that requires more than a handshake, move to the wilderness and be prepared to turn off any anything that shows up in infrared when the satellites make their pass over your place. If this all seems too much of bother you could just stop posting your life story on Face book. If someone wants your information they don't need the Internet to get it. We have finally entered into the era where a lot of people have never had to live without access to the Internet and unfortunately these people are turning out to be the biggest morons on the planet. If you want true facts good luck finding them on the Internet, If you want a real education stop using Internet searches to find your answers and do real research that *gasp* might rely on using hard copy books. The Internet was supposed to herald the age of free and easy information exchange unfortunately the majority of that free information is bullshit and all around mis-information that has only increased the amount of acrimony and animosity in the world.

  13. We're all nerds here by ctime · · Score: 4, Informative

    I can hear the booo and hisses already, but this is a large reason why I fucking hate Windows. Let's be real here, everyone getting hacked by these knuckleheads are idiots themselves (to a degree) AND running windows. But what about this: I just imaged and updated my Windows 7 64 system, only use Firefox, and have Microsoft AV (free) enabled. I was minding my own business surfing the web in what I thought was a fairly secure setup, some random popup or link injected code through what I believe was a flash vulnerability (again the box was only a month old) and installed some fucked up rootkit that MS AV actually found the next day. WTF? 0-day exploits CRUSH windows, despite the UAV etc, some how this shit still gets through. Yes, I could have done probably xyz things to protect myself, which I would believe if I were running XP, but this is a 1Mo old version of 7, automatic updates, and I only use firefox. FML.

    Web browsers should run in a VM session that is incompatible with the host operating system on a binary level. This kind of aformentioned horseshit rarely if ever happens to everyday average normal guys just browsing the web on their Macs or Ubuntu boxes. Also, fuck it, I'm only browsing the web on a Linux image from now on on this Windows box (and just for reference the box is only used for gaming, occasionally slashdot raging)

    1. Re:We're all nerds here by ledow · · Score: 2, Informative

      "Web browsers should run in a VM session"

      Or just have proper isolation and not ***execute*** random code at all.

      The problem with Windows is not necessarily programmers, it's the design and the expectations of its users. For some reason, if your email client doesn't automatically execute and display that Powerpoint presentation without warnings, people get annoyed. If the Flash/Java sections of a website aren't seamlessly executed as they load people think things are broken. If the executable they download isn't immediately installable, they question it. If their Word macros don't run when they open the documents, they complain.

      The "saviour" of other OS is really the culture (because we're not immune to the same things happening on Linux, etc. you know?) - You *can't* execute code without the execute bit set, and users of the system know WHY that is, and they are careful about what they apply the execute bit to (and we don't put up messages that say "Hey, this isn't executable, shall I do it for you?").

      Is there an equivalent concept of "non-executable" on Windows that's usable in an everyday environment for random users? Not really. The nearest you get is Software Restriction policies, but they are a nightmare to manage and nobody uses them (and even then it's still possible to execute random code from the Internet if you just pipe it through a trusted program, e.g. a Word macro).

      If you use a decent browser with the correct security, Flash/Java apps appear as nothing more than a play button that *YOU* decide to click and ZERO code is executed from that app until you do (and you'd be amazed how many play buttons I see each day just browsing ordinary websites that I *NEVER* click on because I stop noticing they are there unless I've gone to something that I understand NEEDS to execute a Java app for whatever reason).

      Why a web browser NEEDS to run executable code to do its job, I'll never understand - it's nothing more than a renderer, like Ghostscript, except you don't see Ghostscript executing in-built shell commands or machine code in the Postscript its trying to render (though even that's had its fair share of problems, they are NOTHING compared to a browser flaw). Does Internet Explorer even have options to let you selectively load Flash/Java? No (and even on Firefox, it's an additional plugin). Opera has it available by default, though.

      Hell, Intel, nVidia, Windows Update etc. encourage you to run an ActiveX or Java app so they can "detect your hardware" to choose the best drivers - does that not throw warning bells to people about how much access it would have to the system if you allowed it? And because it's the largest companies (and even the suppliers of the damn OS) that encourage it, people think that's okay.

      The problem of viruses is NOT computer related, it's entirely user-related. Not updating software, not running AV (though I'm against the whole idea of AV, personally, when managing your computer properly works so much better), not clicking Yes, inserting untested storage devices, having Autorun enabled, not having the most basic firewall, etc. The holes that are there are there because of the design / choices / implementation of the OS manufacturer, sure, but they get exploited because of the choices of the user.

      The systems that OS vendors have deployed against viruses include anti-virus (the biggest scam of our time, as far as I'm concerned), forcing Autorun off after 10 years of OS deployment, running browsers in separate processes to explorer windows and other ridiculous half-measures.

      At no point is there a mention of complete isolation (as in a chroot-style environment - why does a browser EVER need to write to anything other than a single downloads directly that the OS won't let you run programs directly from it?), or of just not executing this crap by default. How many programs actually assign Windows ACL permissions to their folders, for example? Hell, historically WMF's were nothing more than a list of GDI-executed