Important information came from London: the internet users are advised to watch out for Mebroot - a sneaky Windows virus that is capable to steal, for online bank accounts, login details.The period between 12 December and 7 January was ill-fated, especially for those in Europe: almost 5,000 computers were infected by the nasty program.
People became victims to the virus via booby-trapped websites, as the specialist mention, such is using vulnerabilities in Microsoft's browser to install the attack code.
Because the virus can hide deep inside Windows, it isn’t easy at all to discover it.It’s "job" is to overwrite the Master Boot Record (MBR), a part of the computer’s hard drive. Once with the connection of the computer, the virus examine the similar section for details regarding the operating system it will be running.
The Mebroot virus deals not only with the installation, but it also downloads keyloggers programs to take and use private information.According to Elia Florio "If you can control the MBR, you can control the operating system and therefore the computer it resides on".
He also mentioned that the Master Boot Record was used by the before Windows viruses to control the computers. They remain in expectation on a computer as long as it is necessary and, when the possessor logs in to the online banking systems of one of more than 900 financial institutions, they attack.
A Russian virus-writing group had written Mebroot and then began stealing bank login information. The iDefense security firm declared that although Mebroot was used in December, it was discovered in October.
The incompletely patched computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 are in danger and, if they are still turned on, Mebroot can not be eliminated.
|
