Security threats Toolkit

Stealth keylogger used in bank heist

Tom Espiner ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 07 Feb 2006 17:40 GMT

A gang of Russians and Ukrainians have been arrested for allegedly stealing more than €1m (£700,000), The Guardian reported on Tuesday.

The gang is accused of stealing from French bank accounts by installing a stealth keylogging program on users' PCs. The Trojan would infect machines through email attachments or when users visited certain Web sites.

The keylogger would then remain dormant on the infected computers until the user visited their online bank account, when it would activate and record passwords and bank details, which would be forwarded to the gang.

The gang then used the details to steal by transferring money to accounts belonging to third parties, known as mules. The money was transferred through a fictitious company called World Transfer, police said. The mules may have been unaware their computers were being used for theft.

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