Symantec issues `Silentbanker’ virus warning

Symantec is warning of a "man-in-the-middle" attack. It's made the main stream news see the pull out quotes below from this article: Symantec issues `Silentbanker’ virus warning

Here are the Symantec pages on the virus.

http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/security_response/weblog/2008/01/banking_in_silence.html

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2007-121718-1009-99

According to Symantec, if you have Windows updated and SAV updated, the computer is protected from getting the infection, so College staff should be in the clear.....

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“In what is being billed as one of the most sophisticated cyber attacks to hit the Internet, a virus has been released that gets between computer users and their banking websites, giving thieves free rein to drain accounts and wreak financial havoc on their victims.

Dubbed the "Silentbanker," the virus is a Trojan horse computer users may unknowingly download by simply browsing the Internet. The first sign it's at work may be a bank notification warning their client has been a victim of fraud.

More than 400 banks -- including some in Canada -- have been targeted worldwide by the virus, which operates in many languages, said Symantec, a global security company tracking the progress of the Trojan.”

"Unlike conventional cyber banking frauds -- in which bank clients are steered to a bogus website masquerading as their own institution's online site -- Silentbanker uses the genuine bank website and is able to manipulate the user's account without the client's knowledge.

Payments are steered into a hacker's account, or cleaned out altogether, before transactions can be encrypted.

It can also be used to steal credit card information and passwords.

When a banking client signs on to their banking website, the hacker is a silent third party, remaining completely hidden and making no changes at all to the site the banking client is seeing.

All the functions, from transferring funds to paying bills or checking credit card balances, remain the same and continue to work, thereby giving the user no cause to suspect they've been compromised."