Millions milked from UK bank accounts in 'Dridex' malware cyber attacks
National Crime Agency issues belated warning - but reveals that at least one arrest has been made
The National Crime Agency has issued a warning to internet users in the UK that they are being targeted by a new version of the Dridex malware - adding that some £20m has already been stolen in the UK alone. Worldwide, the losses are much higher.
"Dridex malware, also known as Bugat and Cridex, has been developed by technically skilled cyber criminals in Eastern Europe to harvest online banking details, which are then exploited to steal money from individuals and businesses around the world.
"Global financial institutions and a variety of different payment systems have been particularly targeted," claims the NCA in its alert.
The NCA warns that "thousands" of internet users may be infected, but not yet affected by the attacks.
"The NCA is conducting activity to ‘sinkhole' the malware, stopping infected computers - known as a botnet - from communicating with the cyber criminals controlling them. This activity is in conjunction with a US sinkhole, currently being undertaken by the FBI. The agency's National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) have rendered a large portion of the botnet harmless and are now initiating remediation activity to safeguard victims," claims the alert.
It continues: "This activity is part of a sustained and ongoing campaign targeting multiple versions of Dridex and the cyber criminals behind it, who operate in hard to reach parts of the world.
"The FBI and the National Crime Agency, with support from EC3 and JCAT at Europol, the Metropolitan Police Service, GCHQ, CERT-UK, the BKA in Germany, the Moldovan authorities and key private sector security partners are developing and deploying techniques, to safeguard victims and frustrate criminal networks."
The event is free to qualifying end users - register now!
Mike Hulett, Head of Operations at the National Crime Agency's National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) said: "This is a particularly virulent form of malware and we have been working with our international law enforcement partners, as well as key partners from industry, to mitigate the damage it causes. Our investigation is ongoing and we expect further arrests to made."
The warning comes on the same day that Adobe releases yet-another monster patch to fix security holes in many of its products. Security flaws in Adobe's Acrobat Reader and Flash client software are typically targeted by cyber criminals in their phishing campaigns as the two applications are almost ubiquitous - cross-platform and more widely installed than any other software.