Emails were sent asking Nordea customers to
download a piece of software which they were told was a piece of
anti-spam software. In fact it was a piece of software which was
activated when customers tried to log into internet banking with
Nordea. It recorded their login details and asked them to log in
again because of a fictional error.
It then recorded their second attempt to log
in, which would give hackers enough information to access accounts.
Most internet banks only ask for a portion of an access code at
login to prevent one-off spying attempts from gaining the whole
code, but the fake error messages ensured that the Nordea hackers
were given access to enough information to access an account.
Police told Computer Sweden that the
information was sent to servers in the US and then on to Russia,
from where money was siphoned from users' accounts.
"This is a worrying concern for any online
bank user as the threat of cyber crime targeting 'safe'
institutions gets an ever more real concern," said a statement from
security firm McAfee.
Around 250 customers were said to have been
targeted over a period of 15 months. The software was written
especially for the Nordea system and to target only that bank's
customers, though it was a modification of a more general Trojan
application, Haxdoor.
Trojans are named after the Trojan Horse which
was used at Troy. Like the wooden horse, the Trojan applications
make a claim to be innocent and beneficial but are actually a
secret mode of attack. This Trojan claimed to be an anti-spam
application.
The bank has refunded the customers the money
that was stolen from them. Nordea spokesperson Boo Ehlin told the
ZDNet news service that most of those affected by the software were
not running anti-virus applications.
The hackers had avoided automated transaction
checking that internet banking systems have in place by
transferring small sums of money over a 15 month period out of the
affected accounts. Sudden large transfers would have alerted the
system but the thieves were able to siphon a large amount of money
out over time using smaller transactions.
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