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The crimeware toolkit ZeuS has made current headlines lately by garnering attention of the FBI, and for the new components that allow hackers to break into BlackBerry and Symbian phones.
Such a tense focal point on ZeuS in the news and by foremost security software manufacturers allows for other complicated malware to take a stronger grip in the marketplace, according to a Security Week report. For instance, the Bugat suite is listed by McAfee as a Very Low Risk Level 1 threat.
A recent LinkedIn attack was initially credited to ZeuS, fueling more focus away from the increasing popularity of Bugat. But in reality Bugat was what hackers used in this particular scheme.
Although it isn’t as widespread, the Bugat trojan is just as capable of retrieving illicit credentials and providing profit for the botnet operators. The goal of Bugat is to retrieve financial login information, and have the botnet perform high value wire transfers with the stolen data.
Bugat operates by launching a .exe that monitors the URLs you visit and captures your login details. In addition, in some instances, Bugat will actually modify the look of the login page to gain additional personal information.
Bugat distributes the standard frustrating pieces of malware as well, allowing for unknown file transfers, launching of unintended programs, and rendering windows inoperable. Once it finishes mining data and collecting login credentials, the .exe sends the data back to the botnet to have the illicit transfers executed.
The desired targets are business owners, as automated payments to random resellers may go undetected for some time from large coffers. A standard personal bank account while it may provide the keys to full on identity theft is more work for less return.
As long as the security news of crimeware toolkit ZeuS is of FBI raids–and not gaping security holes affecting the public–we can take some comfort in knowing that the better hackers are on our side. The give and take of malware and the security industry could appear to be miserable, as new threats occur regularly, and in the case of Bugat, old threats return to the surface as newer threats draw all the attention. How ever the security industry remains attentive.
