Well, it's official...Clampi, Zeus and Conficker are NOT alone. I said in earlier posts that it would only be a matter of time before another threat to online banking reared it's ugly head.  No I had to update my War of the World Wide Web graphic to include this one...(below)



I must admit, I didn't think it would happen this quickly.   Again...it avoids detection (see what I mean about prevention being better?) and it takes advantages of the inherent weaknesses in the browser...and the fact that we stupidly (sorry...naivete is no longer an excuse)  continue to "type" versus "swipe" when we authenticate ourselves online. 



Introducing URLZone, a NEW Banking Trojan. You know what IT does? It steals the user's online bank account log-in information, accesses your account, begins draining it and rewrites the code to cover it up. You think I'm kidding right?



Oh...but I'm not...



New Malware Re-Writes Online Bank Statements to Cover Fraud



According to Wired, the malware, called URLZone, infects a computer when the user visits a compromised site, or a site set up by hackers.



Then, the program steals the user's bank account log-in information  (because it is TYPED) and begins draining funds that it then sends to other designated accounts. However, the victim doesn't realize the money is missing because the program rewrites the text in the html code. So, when the browser displays the page, it looks like either no money has been stolen or just a small amount has been transferred.



Think it's time to start accessing our online bank accounts without typing yet?  No?  Read on:



The new Trojan, called URLZone, features a number of innovations not widely seen in Internet crime. For example, the Trojan can estimate precisely how much money to steal based on how much dough you have in your account, and can even siphon money in small increments to evade detection.

"It's a next generation bank Trojan," Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer at Finjan, a cyber-security firm, told CNET News.com. "This is part of a new trend of more sophisticated Trojans designed to evade anti-fraud "detection" systems.

The infected machines ended up with a bank Trojan – in this case, the URLzone bank Trojan. This nasty piece of crimeware has the following features:

• It logs credentials and activities of bank accounts


• It takes screenshots of webpages served by the websites mentioned before Installed on the victims’ machines, it steals money from the compromised accounts


• It hides its fraudulent transaction(s) in the report screen of the compromised account


• Its C&C server sends instructions over HTTP about the amount to be stolen and where the stolen money should be deposited


• It also logs and reportson other web accounts (e.g., Facebook, PayPal, Gmail) and banks from other countries

A Trojan horse is a type of malware -- or malevolent software -- that allows criminals unauthorized access to the user's computer system. Details of URLZone appear in a new report by Finjan's Malicious Code Research Center.

URLZone takes advantage of vulnerabilities in web browsers, including Firefox and Internet Explorer, then executes a program on Windows systems -- which means if you're running a Mac, you're safe. For now!

Continue Reading at Daily Finance

The world wide web is under attack.  There are two distinct ways we can fight back.  Our chances to win are SLIM and None.  Your Choice. You can choose between what is pictured on the left or you can choose what is pictured on the right.  It's your World Wide Web, ask your financial institution to put a SLIM into your hand and you will eliminate the environment in which the attackers flourish...



The PIN Payments Blog has spent a lot of time on Zeus and Clampi, two Bank Trojans. However, before anyone heard of either Zeus or Clampi, Conficker has made news for almost a year. (really just noise, because nobody knows what it's going to do)



Conficker is analagous to having extremely large UFO's appear and then simply hover over every major metropolitan city in the world. There's really nothing we can do. It may simply be the the mother-ship for Clampi and Zeus who have been sent down to explore how to perpetrate the most damage.



According to PandaLabs, 60% of computers worldwide are now infected with malware, there is a list of 4500 Financial Institutions, that, when visited, alert the Bank Trojans to steal log-in credentials. So what do we do?



Well, in War of the Worlds, it was the environment that killed the threat. The environment we are using (typing) is allowing the threat to "flourish"...



There are two environments enabling all threats. 1. The Browser. (solution: Conduct Financial Transactions "outside" the browser with a separate machine such as HomeATM's SLIM) 2. "Card Not Present" Fraud. (solution: Eliminate the CNP environment by Swiping instead of Typing) Therefore, it only makes sense, that if we want to save the World (Wide Web) from being taken over by Hackers, we need to change the environment into one where they cannot survive.



How do we do that? We eliminate typing and we start "swiping"...they cannot swipe what they cannot see. With 2FA 3DES DUKPT E2EE PCI 2.x Certfied PIN Entry Device, they would need to put a camera in every home in order to steal our cardholder data.



And guess what.  That is NOT gonna happen. In the meantime, we can only watch in horror as it gets worse...and worse it will get.



Here's a clip from an article written by KJH at Dark Reading about Conficker:

Conficker Showdown: No End In Sight

Reinfected machines likely part of the 5.5 to 6 million-strong Conficker headcount

Sep 29, 2009 | 04:44 PM By Kelly Jackson Higgins - DarkReading

Security researchers have picked it apart, vendors have banded together to fight it, and most users have at least heard of it after it made the mainstream media for a possible April 1 activation that never happened -- but the Conficker worm just won't go away. Its bot count has remained steady at around 6 million machines since this summer. And no one really knows what its operators have in store for all of that firepower.



"We continue to see infection rates at a very high level, especially for the A and B variants [of Conficker]," says Andre DiMino, director of the Shadowserver Foundation, which tracks Conficker infections for the Conficker Working Group. "We've done a good job at getting a grasp on Conficker itself and its architecture, and have also had great response from groups within the Conficker Working Group. Now we just need to be a little more aggressive in remediation and with more awareness to really make a concerted effort to get this thing cleaned up."



What concerns security researchers is that despite all of the resources and attention being poured into eradicating Conficker -- Microsoft even offers a $250,000 bounty to catch the people behind the worm -- infections just keep coming worldwide. "It continues to be a giant engine idling, and we wait and see what they're going to do with it," DiMino says.



Continue Reading

• $0 fraud liability


• Secure online account numbers for Internet transactions


• Dedicated customer service specialists


• E-mail alerts


• Credits score monitoring


• Paperless statements


• Fraud prevention education tips

"Mr. Lewis held a phone call with the bank’s board earlier Wednesday to tell them that he had decided to retire, said two people briefed on the situation. The board accepted his decision but did not name a successor. The board will continue evaluating possible successors.

Mr. Lewis, 62, has been under immense pressure since the bank merged with Merrill Lynch at the start of the year. He struck a deal to purchase the investment bank last fall, a move that pushed Bank of America toward a second bailout from the government in January.



Bank of America, which has received $45 billion in taxpayer bailout money, last week announced several measures to cut its reliance on federal aid. Shareholders, upset about the second bailout and the dilution of their shares caused by the deal, voted in the spring to strip Mr. Lewis of his chairmanship. That was a major blow to Mr. Lewis, but he showed no signs at the time of a willingness to depart."

MasterCard Fights Back with Facts:

• Even among initial supporters, three in four (75%) oppose the legislation when it would end up increasing the fees they pay for their payment cards; including 55% who strongly oppose it.


• Almost three in four (73%) say that “the cost of accepting credit card payments” is something merchants should pay as part of their costs of doing business.


• Almost three in four (71%) agree that it would not be fair for consumers to pay the merchants’ cost of operating a credit card system.


• Almost three in four (73%) agree that paying for card acceptance is a good investment for merchants because accepting credit cards helps their business.


• Support for 7-Eleven’s petition was associated with a fundamental misunderstanding of the impact of reduced merchant fees on consumers. Of those consumers who were inclined to sign the petition, 80% mistakenly believed that consumers would directly and immediately benefit from a reduction in merchant fees.

Convenience Store News wrote an article on MasterCard's new survey which revealed that three-quarters of respondents believed that fees paid by merchants are a cost of doing business.  The war rages on. 



By Barbara Grondin Francella - CSN



September 29, 2009 - DALLAS -- MasterCard Worldwide fired back against convenience store chain 7-Eleven Inc. yesterday, stating the c-store operator's recent consumer petitioning against 'unfair" credit card fees was "misleading" to customers, who actually believe merchants should pay the costs of accepting credit and debit cards.

According to survey results released by MasterCard, three-quarters of respondents believed the fees merchants pay for accepting credit cards are a cost of doing business and merchants should pay those fees.  "These consumers recognize that merchants receive significant benefits from accepting payment cards, and that merchants should pay for those benefits," MasterCard said in a statement.



MasterCard President, U.S. Markets Chris McWilton said: "It's surprising that 7-Eleven, a company that prides itself on convenience, would mount such an aggressive campaign against the most convenient form of payment. Even 7-Eleven itself has said many times that accepting payment cards increases their sales, enhances safety and convenience for store operators, and improves customer satisfaction."



In response, 7-Eleven spokeswoman Margaret Chabris told CSNews Online the c-store chain is "in favor of plastic -- it is a convenience for our customers. We don't oppose transaction fees. We just want them to be fair."

The credit card company called 7-Eleven's petition drive "highly questionable" and said "consumers may have been duped into signing the petition."



While initially many consumers said they would support legislation to regulate merchant fees, that support dramatically shifted to opposition once consumers "understood that it would cost them more through higher fees to use their payment cards," MasterCard said.