'Expect mass attacks with new online banking Trojan during holidays'

MANILA, Philippines - Multi-national computer security company Kaspersky Lab has recorded several thousand attempts to infect computers used for online banking with a malicious program that its creators claim can attack “any bank in any country.”

Kaspersky Lab said the Neverquest Trojan banker supports just about every possible trick used to bypass online banking security systems and a sharp rise in the number of attacks involving this program is expected.

The company said these attacks, which would result in financial losses for users all over the world, can happen in the weeks prior to the Christmas and New Year holidays, which are traditionally a period of high malicious user activity.

Neverquest steals usernames and passwords to bank accounts and the data entered by the user into the modified pages of a banking website.

Special scripts for Internet Explorer and Firefox are used to facilitate these thefts, giving the malware control of the browser connection with the cybercriminal’s command server when visiting the sites of 28 sites on the list, including those that belong to large international banks - sites of German, Italian, Turkish and Indian banks, as well as payment systems.

Another function helps the malicious users replenish their list of targeted banks and develop code to be seeded on new websites that were previously not on the target list.

Kaspersky Lab said an investment fund appears to be the top target of the malicious program. Its website offers clients a long list of ways to manage their finances online.

This gives malicious users the chance to not only transfer cash funds to their own accounts but also to play the stock market, using the accounts and the money of Neverquest victims.

After gaining access to a user’s account with an online banking system, cybercriminals conduct transactions and wire money from the user to their own accounts or – to keep the trail from leading directly to them – to the accounts of other victims.

According to Kaspersky Lab, protection against threats such as Neverquest requires more than just standard antivirus and users need a dedicated solution that secures transactions.

In particular, the solution must be able to control a running browser process and prevent any manipulation by other applications.