Bank spoof trojan infections fell 50% in '14

Law enforcement agencies and security vendors managed to reduce the threat posed by online bank trojans during 2014, with the number of computers compromised by the most common variants falling 50%.

A study by Symantec shows that the number of financial trojan infections has steadily decreased after a spike in March. The infection rate has now fallen to levels not seen since the end of 2012.

Arrests, takedown operations and increased detection rates from security software have all combined to help reduce the infection rate, Symantec said.

The report shows that around 1467 financial institutions in 86 countries were targeted with financial trojans in 2014, with the top nine targeted financial institutions attacked with more than 40% of these.

But the number of financial trojans decreased by 53% in 2014, and traditional phishing email rates dropped by 74%. The US remains the most targeted country with nearly 1 million detections, but there was a spike in attacks targeting Asia during the year.

Yet, even as one threat to Australian internet users subsides somewhat, another may be returning to the fore. Email security firm MailGuard has detected a new ransomware threat involving the infamous CryptoLocker malware.

The attackers are sending emails claiming to be from Australia Post and alerting users to an undelivered parcel, ARN reported.

Recipients are asked to click a link taking them to a spoofed website appearing to be a direct replica of the real Australia Post site. After completing an authentication, victims are sent a zip file containing an executable infected with the CryptoLocker ransomware.

CryptoLocker encrypts files on a user’s computer and then displays a message offering to decrypt the data only if a payment is made.

The malware was isolated in late May by a consortium of law enforcement agencies, security software vendors and universities. But now a new Australian threat using the malware has been discovered.

Image courtesy of Intel Free Press under CC