URLZone Virus Hits Online Banking



Posted: Wednesday, December 02, 2009

by Angeline Mabute
http://www.techienow.com

Most banks nowadays provide online banking services. With the increasing number of cybercriminals, you have to be very careful when doing money matters over the web. One of the evidences was the discovery of the URLZone virus.

URL Zone is a new type of banking Trojan horse that steals your login credentials and steals your money from your account at the same time. It is said to be controlled by servers in Ukraine discovered by the help of the researchers of a security firm, Finjan. It targets Firefox, Opera and last three versions of Internet Explorer – IE6, IE7 and IE8. It displays your fake balance while you are logged in. It steals the exact amount money from your account during the time when you are logged in.

At present, the said virus is only affecting computers in Germany. Generally, URLZone infects your PC when you open an e-mail and click a link or visit an infected site. Once the virus infected your PC, URLZone waits for you to transact banking online. While you are doing your bank transactions online, the virus is also present in the background with the bank server and you not knowing that it's already stealing your money. It sound impossible but it's really happening.

URLZone virus cleans its tracks on your account by displaying a fake balance in your computer. Of course, it wouldn't show the amount of your stolen money. You will be able to distinguish the discrepancy in your balance if you use an uninfected PC, use an ATM or your transaction is denied because of insufficient funds.

For your own security, you should always update and run your antivirus, spyware and firewall protection automatically. In this way, virus and other malware will not sneak to your PC, infect it and steal the money that you have been saving all your life. Use the latest version of your web browser. It's not safe to use out-of-date web browser because it is often riddled with holes that worms can get through. You must update your operating systems critical security patches automatically. It is one of the best protections against any type of security threat. Bank account users like you should not click on unsolicited web links in e-mails that you receive. You should also check your bank statements frequently.

With URLZone virus being discovered, it warns people to be careful when doing bank transactions online. For the first time, a virus hijacks a user's browser session, steals money while doing online banking, and clean its tracks by displaying fake information to you. Beware! If you are concerned that your computer may already be infected with a virus, seek a PC support to help you.




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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Marijo Phelps
 2 years 172 days ago.
143 fans.
We had to change our credit card twice last year through online problems - glad we don't bank on the computer! MArijo
» left by Angeline Mabute 2 years 172 days ago.
7 fans.
Really? It's reall not safe to transact online banking nowadays. Thanks for the response. =)
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