Sleeper Virus Steals One Million Euros Released by: Manish Katara Web Site: http://www.mwti.net It’s now known to everybody that many computer viruses have ulterior financial motives. Email: manish@mwti.net Keywords: antivirus, content security, antispam, spyware detection Update Date: 2/7/2006 10:08:00 AM Hits: 247 Descrption:  It’s now known to everybody that many computer viruses have ulterior financial motives. Guardian, UK, reported that a Russian gang has stolen more than 1 million from individual bank accounts in France, using "sleeper bugs" to infect user computers. Using the virus, the intruder can take charge and empty a bank account in a matter of seconds. This virus spreads via emails and can remain dormant in the computer. It activates when the victim connects to the online bank account and the virus steals usernames and passwords and forwards them to the thieves. Then, they pass customer’s savings to the accounts of third parties, known as mules, who work as conduits for money transfer in return of a dividend, up to 10%. The syndicate used a fictitious American firm named ‘World Transfer’ for these operations. A dozen Russian hackers behind the scam, mostly in their twenties and several Ukrainians who controlled them, have been arrested in Moscow and St Petersburg. According to the authorities all the French victims were trapped because they didn't have any proactive antivirus software. "The financial motives of virus is nothing new. While it’s vital to have an antivirus solution to safeguard your personal information, one needs to also make sure that the software is up-to-date, in threat detection and prevention. Our solutions eScan and MailScan use a combination of signature and heuristic scanning to defeat existing viruses as well as disguised or newer malice. Many new viruses are mutant variants of earlier ones, and we employ a sophisticated algorithm to catch them. After all, it’s about one’s hard earned money!" Says Sulabh Mahant, Security Analyst, MicroWorld. Resolution Timely updates of MicroWorld products will enable you to keep off threats like these intruder viruses. In case of infections, you can download our free virus and spyware scanning toolkit ‘MWAV’ from our website. The trial versions of the MicroWorld software, can also be downloaded from the same website. MicroWorld MicroWorld ( www.mwti.net ) are the developers of the world's first Real-Time Anti-Virus and Content Security software eScan for desktops and servers. Its communication security software, MailScan is the first comprehensive e-mail scanner for your SMTP/POP3 Mail Server. MicroWorld Winsock Layer (MWL) is the revolutionary technology underlying these products, powering them to several certifications and awards by some of the most prestigious testing bodies, notable among them being Virus Bulletin, Checkmark, TUCOWS, Red Hat Ready, and Novell Ready. Combining their powerful scanner with MWL technology, MicroWorld solutions provide a Real-Time Proactive security for your systems. To learn more, kindly visit the website at http://www.mwti.net/ Contact infomation: sales@mwti.net