Moscow: Bank Blocks Computer Virus

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread

MOSCOW - An unprecedented computer virus
designed to steal bank account information
from clients of Swiss banking giant UBS AG
was detected last week, said bank officials.
And as soon as the virus appeared, a Moscow-
based anti-virus software developer worked
independently of the bank to remove the danger
to its clients. Yevgeny Kaspersky, founder and
chief developer of the Kaspersky Lab, Russia's
leading anti-virus software developer, said he
had received four reports of malfunctions from
the company's clients in both Russia and
Switzerland.

. . .

The virus is designed to replicate itself using
Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program and, like
the earlier Love Letter bug, it includes a resume
in the form of a text attachment. While the Love
Letter message included the resume of a Filipino
student, the new invader features a German-
language resume from a Zurich-based Internet
company, which is most likely bogus, Prime-Tass
reported.

Once run, the virus can download a password-stealing
program that copies online banking information
related to the Union Bank of Switzerland from the
infected computer and send it to an anonymous e-mail
address accessible to the scheme's authors.

St. Petersburg Times

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), August 24, 2000


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