Trend Micro: Only Arrests Can Stop Cyber Crime

Only arrests can really put an end to cyber crime, according to anti-virus firm Trend Micro in response to recent occurrence of various police forces against the Dridex botnet. The FBI, the British National Crime Agency (NCA) and Europol were able to disable several servers of the botnet.

The botnet was used by criminals to steal money from online bank accounts. Despite the occurrence Dridex is still active. "It was developed as a botnet as a service (BaaS). It consists of several botnets each having different configuration files," says Michael Marcos. Although Dridex is affected by the operation of law enforcement agencies were not all servers off.

It was also arrested only one member of the gang Dridex, a system administrator. The other members are still on the run and continued their activities. According to Trend Micro disrupt such operations cyber criminal activities in the short term, but long-term success is not always guaranteed. "They ensure that the least effective threats are removed and cyber criminals can learn from their mistakes. Arrests are therefore required to really put an end to cyber crime," said the virus fighter.

British Vodafone Customers Hacked Via Reused Password

More than 1800 British Vodafone customers have been hacked by them the password to their Vodafone account also used for other websites, as has informed the telecom provider know. The provider allows attackers this week have attempted to access the account details of customers.

This made the attackers use email addresses and passwords from an unknown outside source. According to Vodafone's own systems are not hacked. Through the data, the attackers were able to log on to the accounts of customers in 1827. In addition, the attackers may access names, phone numbers, bank identification codes and the last four digits of the bank account given.

In a "handful" affected customers attempting to use this data for fraudulent purposes on their Vodafone account. According to Vodafone, criminals can commit fraud with the stolen data and customers run the risk of being targeted by phishing attacks.The provider of these customers blocked the account and they then informed and helped to change the account information.Also, the British police have opened an investigation.

Europol Arrests Gang Behind Zeus- And SpyEye Malware

At an international operation is an active group of cyber criminals arrested who is suspected to be behind the development and spread of the Zeus- and SpyEye malware. The malware was used to steal money from online bank accounts, which the gang would have caused damage to 2 million.


The operation, which took place on 18 and 19 June in the Ukraine and was supported by Europol and Euro just were arrested five suspects and eight homes searched. According to Europol, the criminals use malware to attack online banking systems in Europe and beyond. "Every cyber criminal had its own specialty and the group was pretty skirts in making the malware, infecting machines, collecting credentials for online banking and money laundering through straw men," said the European Investigation.


On forums for cyber criminals stolen credentials were compromised account data and malware traded. The group would also their "hacking services" to other parties and cooperation with other cyber criminals have sought. "This was a very active group of criminals who were active in countries on all continents, tens of thousands of users infected with banking Trojans then attacked big banks," said Europol.

Criminals Steal $ 1.5 Million Over Hacked E-mail Account

Criminals have managed to steal last month $ 1.5 million from the Swedish publisher Bonnier Publications and media group, after they had hacked the email account of then-CEO, as the new CEO in front of the New York Post announced.

It is the well-known e-mail scam that allows companies worldwide last year for 226 million dollars were scammed.Scammers send out whether accounts hacked e-mails to the finance department with payment instructions from the CEO or CFO seem to originate. In the case of Bonnier Publications e-mail account of the CEO was hacked, but exactly how this occurred was not disclosed. Then the criminals sent payment instructions to an employee of the publishing house to make about $ 3 million.

The payment was made through two transactions of $ 1.5 million. The second tans action could be stopped before the money had ended up in a Chinese bank. The employee decided to call the CEO to confirm the transaction. The first transaction however, could not be reversed and according to the publisher the Chinese banking authorities are not very helpful in identifying the account holder.

Armed Door Cannot Save Cybercriminal Twins

In Russia, in an operation police arrested two brothers who were members of a gang of cyber criminals and had taken all kinds of measures designed to prevent an arrest properly. That leaves the Russian security company Group-IB , which was involved in the operation, know today.

The brothers, who are twins, were in the past been convicted of cyber crime. They were still in their probationary period when they end of 2011 again took to the wrong path. Only in mid-2012 the Russian police to identify the brothers. It took three years before all the evidence had been collected. The brothers were found to use malware to gain access to bank accounts and intercept SMS codes. On May 20, police found surgical site which was directed against the brothers and other members of the gang.

During the raid showed that the brothers were well prepared for the arrival of the police. Thus, the apartment was equipped with armored door, there was an electromagnetic transducer for destroying computer equipment. Also, the brothers had prepared special SMS alerts to warn other members that they had to destroy material. In the raid, the brothers tried to destroy all the material by the money, USB sticks and mobile phones by flushing the toilet.

Malicious Word Document Hidden In A PDF File

Frequently happens that attackers use DOC and PDF files to infect internet users with malware, but recently a researcher found a PDF file called "Sales Invoice" that contained a malicious Word document.When opening the PDF file is via Javascript tried to open an embedded Word document. Standard warns Adobe Reader to open these embedded files.

If users ignore the warning and still choose to open the DOC file in Microsoft Word, then get them whether they want to run the macro in the document. In recent months, regular Word documents with macros used , which once carried download malware. Also in this case, it is after the execution of the macro malware downloaded. It is a variant of the Dridex banking Trojan, a Trojan horse that steals money from online bank accounts.

According to researcher Steve Basford the malicious Office documents at the time only against Windows users. "Apple and Android software to open these attachments and might even run the macros embedded in the annex," he tells his own blog.Belgian researcher and ISC handler Didier Stevens made ​​this demonstration video in which he analyzes the PDF file.