Security news
Security news31 December 2003
Antikl-Dam Trojan fails to infect computers
According to media reports, financial institutions are being targeted by new mass-mailing email. The email purports to come from a bank administrator and advises recipients to install a program, available in the email as an attachment, to protect their bank accounts from fraud.
Sophos has analysed several copies of the code contained in the attached file, antikeylog2004.exe. All have been truncated and do not contain any malicious code. Sophos has contacted the NHTCU (National Hi-tech Crime Unit) which has also seen only truncated attachments that will not run.
The body of the email reads:
"Dear customer,
The security of your personal and account information is extremely
important to us. By practising good security habits, you can help us
ensure that your private information is protected. Please install our
special software, that will remove all the keyloggers and backdoors
from your computer.
And will help us to prevent credit card fraud in future.
Thank you.
Best regards,
<name>"
The Bank of England, one of the many financial institutions affected by this email, has launched an investigation. It is also advising on its website that anyone who receives this email should delete it.
"This is not the first attempt to try and fool computer users, and I doubt it will be the last," explained Carole Theriault, security analyst at Sophos. "Such an email underlines the importance of protecting yourself by following safer computing guidelines and keeping your anti-virus software up to date. The old saying that you shouldn't believe everything you read rings even more true when it comes to unsolicited emails."
