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Hacker sneaks in the back door
21/07/2003 22:00 - (SA)
Carel van Dyke
Cape Town - The victims of the recent Absa internet fraud, which ran into hundreds of thousands of rands, were probably attacked by a Trojan horse.
Just like a seemingly innocent wooden horse misled the people of Troy, malicious programmes hide in spam (unsolicited) mail and even websites.
Absa confirmed that three of its clients lost thousands of rands after a computer programme intercepted their internet passwords.
Karel Rode, an internet security expert, said these harmful programmes can be attached to e-mails or even form part of e-mails.
When the programme is part of the e-mail, it will automatically be installed on the victims computer when the e-mail is opened. The same goes for attachments.
"If you click on the attachment, it would seem as if nothing happens, but meanwhile the programme has loaded itself into your computer's memory," Rode said.
The programme then creates a file in which it records all keys pressed on the keyboard, without the user being aware of it.
"If the programme is clever, it will only record keystrokes when the victim visits a site like Absa," Rode added.
The programme normally has its own e-mail section with which it sends out the information it intercepted.
"Home users should install firewalls on their computers," Rode suggested. "They should set these programmes to enable only certain programmes to send e-mail. In this way they can prevent unsolicited programmes from sending out information.
"I think it is necessary that people are aware of this scheme and that they regularly change their passwords," Rode said.
- Sake
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