21. September 2009 · Comments Off on London TimeOnLine report on Clampi thin on facts · Categories: Breaches, Funds Transfer Fraud, Malware · Tags: , , ,

The London-based Times OnLine had a story today entitled, "New Trojan virus poses online banking threat." With all due respect, Mike Harvey, their Technology Correspondent, appears to have gotten a few things wrong as follows:

  • The headline is referring to the Clampi Trojan, which is not new. It was first discovered in 2006 according to McAfee and 2008 according to Symantec. In fact as late as July 23rd, Symantec classified Clampi as "Very Low" risk. Since then, Symantec has raised the risk level to "High."
  • The Clampi Trojan is just one of many trojans that cyber criminals are using to steal people's online banking credentials. What these trojans have in common is the keylogging capability, i.e. the ability to capture all of your keyboard clicks.
  • The real story is that sophisticated cyber criminals are focusing on stealing money directly out of small and medium business accounts.

For more details on Clampi and funds transfer fraud, see my earlier blog posts here and here respectively.