All the King’s ZeuSes – 3 New Malware Features You Can Stop Worrying About

Malware. This digital ailment has been with us since the early 1970’s in variations ranging from relatively benign website defacement, to harmful DDoS attacks, identity theft, fraud and cybercrime, all the way to cyber-espionage and warfare scenarios. Though an old adversary, thus far, malware’s winning. Attack numbers are on a steady uptick across all sectors — consumer, business and critical infrastructure. New malware families and variant counts grow exponentially, and malware attacks tax the global economy billions of dollars annually.

But why it has not yet been defeated?

As long as humans write code, programs, and build software, tiny errors and loopholes will forever be part of it, providing windows of opportunity to attackers, who will find a way to exploit them and the humans that use them.

Many IT security firms take on the task of following malware, its evolution and its developers’ devises, and attempt to find antidotes for it. Alas, when it comes to malware, one of the most persistent challenges security researchers and solution providers face is the fact that malware authors, and malware itself, are in a constant, endless arms race against security. It is a modern battle of good vs. evil that has plagued computer systems and their users for over 42 years, and it’s only getting worse and more sophisticated with time.

By way of example, let’s look at one very prominent malware piece that has been the cause of anxiety and frustration for all too many consumers, businesses, and financial institutions since 2007: the ZeuS Trojan. Invented by a talented Russian-speaking developer (code name: Slavik), ZeuS is a stealthy, powerful information stealer that is also able to carry out automated real time tasks on the web browsers of computers it infects (so it can move money out of your bank account without you knowing it). This rootkit also establishes an iron grip on its victims, bypassing security products installed on the PC to provide its masters with user-grade access – essentially hijacking it for any purpose they choose.

Read more here: http://www.thetaray.com/kings-zeuses-3-new-malware-features-can-stop-worrying/