The discovery of a new flavor of malware is significant in that it demonstrates the constantly shifting balance between attackers and defenders in cyberspace. This particular Trojan, rather than simply log keystrokes and steal account numbers and passwords, exploits known browser vulnerabilities. Once the exploit has been installed into a vulnerable browser, the Trojan simply waits until a user logs into an online banking site that the Trojan has been designed to exploit. Once the user has logged into that site, the Trojan transfers the money in the users bank account into another bank account controlled by the cyber criminal.
Prior to this type of Trojan, cyber criminals would typically use keystroke loggers to heist exposed individuals’ credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and online banking passwords. This stolen data could either be used to steal money directly from the exposed accounts, or it could be sold on the black market. However, as anti-virus software has continued to identify the known keystroke loggers ?in the wild? and individual users became more conscious about the threat of keystroke loggers, cyber criminals realized that new tactics were needed.
It should not be a surprise that cyber criminals will continue to evolve and alter their tactics. As long as there is a financial incentive for cyber criminals to create exploits from known vulnerabilities, they will continue to think of new and inventive ways to profit from illicit activity in cyberspace. According to Jeanette Jarvis, senior security systems product manager at Boeing, “There is no silver bullet. As soon as we create one tactic to stop them, they come up with a new way.”
It is, therefore, incumbent upon the cyber defenders to identify and publicize vulnerabilities and exploits quickly. As new types of malware are discovered by the defenders and built into anti-virus filters, cyber criminals will be forced to spend more time developing new exploits and less time profiting from old exploits.
