UK bank account customers hit by most dangerous computer virus ever

News - Banking

Written by Ray Clancy

Thursday, 12 August 2010 09:39

Thousands of customers of a large UK bank have had their accounts emptied by what is being described as the most dangerous computer virus to date.

Criminals working from Easter Europe have stolen about £675,000 from customers at a top high street bank, which has not been named. About 3,000 accounts were entered between July 5 and August 4 and the theft is said to be still going on.

The accounts were raided after people had their computers infected by a new Trojan virus, known as Zeus v3, as they surfed the net, according to Internet protection firm M86 Security.

Trojans hide in websites, emails or downloads. Once installed on a computer they can record every type of the keyboard, steal confidential information or even open up a PC’s security so that it can be controlled remotely from another country.

This new virus steals a customer’s online banking ID and, if there is more than £800 in the account, money is transferred to a different account. It then gives the victim of the virus a false bank balance screen so they are unaware the cash has been taken.

Victims of online banking fraud like this usually have the missing money refunded but it can cause misery for those who need the money to pay monthly bills and other outgoings and they risk being overdrawn without realising it.

Among the victims are British bank account customers living abroad who tend to use online banking more frequently.

Financial Fraud Action UK, which co-ordinates the banking sector’s fight against fraud, confirmed that it had contacted the Metropolitan Police e-crimes unit about the attack. A spokeswoman said the bank had not been named because it did not want to worry customers, all of whom would be reimbursed as long as they had not been negligent.

‘This has the potential to worry a lot of people, which is not founded. The bank wants to make sure everything is being done behind the scenes to protect customers. It wants to make sure customers aren't unnecessarily alarmed,’ she added.

M86 said that the cyber criminals had modified the Zeus virus, which is one of the most popular type of Trojan used by fraudsters. ‘According to our research, these cybercriminals used a combination of the new Zeus v3 Trojan and exploit toolkits to successfully avoid anti-fraud systems while robbing bank accounts,’ a spokesman said.

He added that the development takes online hacking to a ‘new level of technical sophistication’ and it was the most dangerous virus found to date.