PCWorld has recently issued warnings concerning a new software that wants to make a name for itself in the hackers world. What this new malware trend brings to the table is the use of natural language dialogue systems which gaming technologies are familiar with.
Basically, what the software does is engaging in automated enticing conversations with the purpose of gathering personal data from those who resort to the Internet in the hope of finding their sweetheart.
The software’s motherland is Russia, its name is CyberLover and its mission to tempt online lovers into giving out their identity or visiting especially crafted fraudulent Web sites.
Its creators are boasting about CyberLover’s ability to establish a new relationship with up to 10 partners in no more than 30 minutes without having any of its victims realize it is not a human being they are feeling a chemistry going on there with.
The program's capacity to copy human behavior during online interactions has prompted PC Tools to issue warnings about the high criminal potential of this new type of software.
Sergei Shevchenko, the company's senior malware analyst, emphasized what this new technological step could mean for the future development of malware. In his opinion, CyberLover qualifies as an ideal tool for hackers proving a hard to match level of social engineering.
CyberLover’s uniqueness comes from the new technique it employs and from its cunning use of extremely intelligent and customized dialogue to lure users of social networking systems without requiring human intervention. In addition, Sergei Shevchenko said that the number of the victims this software may produce could become quite worrisome if it gets spawned in multiple instances on multiple servers.
As PC Tools researchers have revealed, the CyberLover software is quite versatile, making use of numerous profiles varying from "romantic lover" to "sexual predator". It employs a sequence of easily configurable "dialogue scenarios" which has preprogrammed questions and discussion topics; is designed to distinguish the responses of chat-room users as to adapt its interaction consequently; collects a thorough report on every person it encounters which basically consists of confidential information such as the victim's name, contact details, personal photo(s) and other.
Another example of how this software works is its predatory program which lures gullible victims into visiting a "personal" Web site or blog which is actually destined to infect visitors with malware.
So far, according to PC Tools CyberLover is mostly targeting Russian Web sites but the question is how long till it gets in the “neighbourhood”.
