New Computer Virus Targets Online Bankers

New banking trojans are hacking into online bank accounts. Unlike phishing attacks, which use e-mail scams to get you to type your login information at fake bank websites, the trojan programs are invisible and steal data many different ways. Banking trojans wait on your hard drive for a chance to get into your online banking accounts.

The programs can be gotten by clicking on a viral link to a greeting card or video through e-mail spam or by clicking to a website that has already been taken over by hackers. Usually banking trojans are unnoticed until the user logs on to a banking website and then it steals usernames and passwords.

In 2008 there were 59,177 banking trojans on the Internet, up from 15,969 in 2007.
There are different types of banking trojans, some types make cash transfers while the user is logged on. other types create a copy of the Web page that shows account balances.