Ramnit modification used to hack financial organisations
By Deborah Bates
25/08/2011
A modification of the Win32.Ramnit worm, called Zeus, has been used to hack the transaction and authentication processes used by financial institutions, One News Page reported.
Cyber criminals used the intelligent malware to hack the secure systems typically employed by financiers after the Zeus source code appeared on the internet a few months ago.
It isn't just financial organisations that should double check their IT management systems haven't been compromised however, as a recent report found that some 17.3 per cent of all malware infections were caused by the Ramnit configuration. This means other companies could be at risk, too.
Financial institutions have it twice as bad though, given that experts predict tens of thousands of ATMs have been targeted, with Ramnit malware active within their system. It is thought the malware takes hold of HTML, DLL, SCR and EXE files, making it very powerful and able to hack into almost any type of system.
Ramnit wasn't previously given much consideration, having been labelled an "old-school" virus. It seems now thought that IT experts should be aware, advised chief technical officer, Amit Klein.
"Unlike the past, when financial institutions had to defend against a limited number of malware platforms, attacks can now come from virtually any malicious software program, old or new," he said on Computing.org.uk. "The malware distribution channel for fraudsters has increased in scale significantly."
