Trojan viruses that are used to collect financial information are becoming increasingly prevalent. Users are tricked in to downloading and installing these viruses through emails, malicious web sites, and file sharing services. The information the Trojans collect are used to empty bank accounts, steal credit identities, and for credit card fraud.

PandaLabs highlighted the serious danger posed by a recently detected example, the StealAll.A Trojan, which injects a DLL in the internet browser to steal data that users enter in online forms.

According to the security company, 53.6 percent of the new malware samples that appeared in 2006 were Trojans. And 20 percent of all Trojans detected in 2006 were banker Trojans, which were the most frequently detected category of Trojan.

Once the bad guys have the banking information they move on the captured accounts quickly and will also resell the information to others. It is believed that those engaged in these crimes are backed by Mobsters and organized crime syndicates making the attacks sophisticated and wide spread throughout the world.

[Hackers bank on Trojans to steal financial data]

[tags]trojans, trojan, malware, security[/tags]