Another level of sophisticated malware has hit the online banking platform in the form of a virus called “GozNym”. GozNym has already helped hackers steal over $4 million from banks in the United States, Canada, and Europe, according to IBM Security’s executive adviser Etay Maor, who also led forces in discovering the malicious software.
GozNym is a high alert and extremely dangerous malware due to a few contributing factors. One of which being the combination malware. Initial malware infects the machine, installing itself and a second form of malware onto the device. This second form waits in the background until the user decides to visit the web interface of a financial institution, storing the user’s username and password. The encryption level of the malware in this case has been doubled, making it even more difficult to analyze and research. The process is time consuming and often presents little answers as to how to alleviate the machine from the infection.
In addition, GozNym has been shown to be especially more difficult for anti-virus software to detect. Most well informed people aware of the sensitivity of their data, or simply value the life and protection of their computer, already have a noteworthy anti-virus software installed on their machine. Heeding to the advice of information technology professionals. However, if the anti-virus cannot detect the malware then your machine is basically waving it’s hands in the air, asking for trouble. An infection could arise without the user ever being aware of the installation, and all it takes is one visit to their bank’s web portal and the rest is history.
“There might be a million malware strains, but there are only a few families that are active and dangerous and those principal malware families are owned by organized crime, so this could cause very heavy losses in online banking fraud.”
Don’t use the same password for everything. If hackers can silently get the password to one of your bank accounts without you knowing it, don’t give them more to work with by making that same password the golden key to all of your logins. Password managers are becoming increasingly popular due to the need for multiple passwords for everything. Although this method cannot be called bulletproof, it is a significantly better way to stay safe. The GozNym malware is sophisticated enough to show full bank account balances even after criminals have drained accounts. Try to stay conscious of how you are accessing your banking information. Paper statements for the time being, might be the best practice until a solution is found.
If you would like to educate yourself in more detail about the information presented in this blog post please visit: Dangerous New Malware Targets Online Bank Accounts
