Cybersecurity Threat Far From Over

Banks have been on high alert ever since the cyber attacks committed against Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, PNC and others last month.

According to Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, significant new cyber threats to U.S. financial networks appear to be emerging from an "unusual" source, with Iran being one possible origin location.

Also this week, security vendor RSA wrote a blog detailing that a cyber gang has recently communicated its plans to launch a Trojan attack spree on 30 American banks as part of a large-scale orchestrated crimeware campaign.

According to RSA:

Planned for this fall, the blitzkrieg-like series of Trojan attacks is set to be carried out by approximately 100 botmasters. RSA believes this is the making of the most substantial organized banking-Trojan operation seen to date

By analyzing the details of the gang’s announcement, RSA has managed to link the cybergang’s weapon of choice to a little-known, proprietary Gozi-like Trojan, which RSA has dubbed “Gozi Prinimalka.” Derived from the Russian word meaning ”to receive” and alluding to a Trojan drop point, the word “Prinimalka” appears as a folder name in every URL path given by the gang over the years to its crimeware servers. According to underground chatter, the gang plans to deploy the Trojan in an effort to complete fraudulent wire transfers via Man-In-The-Middle (MiTM) manual session-hijacking scenarios.

Of course, banks are used to being vigilant when it comes to cybersecurity; they are under near-constant attack from sources throughout the world. But this latest turn of events just reinforces the need for banks to be proactive in heading off such attacks, working with government agencies and sharing information within the industry.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio