Malibu, CA- It seems there is a new breed of rodent infecting unsuspecting consumers. This RAT, a Remote Access Tool , a sort of virtual "chia pet", is the new weapon of choice of hackers who seek financial gain. This new strain of spyware, picking up steam as phishing scams fail in higher percentages due to educated online consumers, allows hackers to keylog entries of usernames, passwords, and bank logins. Armed with this data, and never known to the victim, the hacker's objective of identity theft is quite easy and fast.
The afore mentioned white paper, The Enemy Within: Spyware and Identity Theft, written as a special contribution to CardCops by Ilya Lichtenstein, details the proliferation of this new threat. Beyond it's obvious sophistication and it's stealth nature, is it's ability to be spread peer-to-peer by music and pornography sites. Even the smartest most security conscious consumer or corporate employee can fall victim to one of these RAT's. Should that happen, the "keys to the kingdom" are gone.
Possible Remedy:
1. Update your AV software regularly.
2. Restore your system settings regularly back to a set date.
Actual compromised data available to commercial entities thru the CardCops paid subscriber "Intelligence Reports". Sample formats of keylogged Verified By Visa and Bank of America logins are available as 'proof of concept" to law enforcement and security professionals.
CardCops On Dateline NBC
