ZeusBot metamorphoses into Internet Antifraud Department

Have you ever heard of that prank about The End of the Internet? A mere invention, that innocent page displays a message announcing users that the site they are looking for “is not experiencing technical difficulties, it is simply the end of the Internet”.

Another work of fiction – Internet Antifraud Department – seems to be the sender behind one of the large spam waves we detected lately. However, it invites recipients to a destination less amusing – ZBot.Trojan Olympian peaks.

Failed logon attempts, issues with your bank account and any other e-banking misfortunes one could imagine plus a shortened URL should be enough to drive fleeceable users towards pages serving one of the most deceitful breeds of malware.

And yes, once on that page, this time could be the end of the Internet – at least for those machines not protected by a comprehensive security solution. Because ZBot likes to mess with the system processes and “remove some bricks” from the Microsoft® Windows® Firewall, providing thus backdoor capabilities. Meanwhile, it also sends sensitive information and eavesdrops on several ports for possible commands from the remote attackers.

The latest variants are also able to steal bank-related information, login data, history of the visited Web sites and other details the user inputs, while also capturing screenshots of the compromised machine’s desktop.

Few words of advice – send Internet Antifraud Department’s unsolicited messages to the oblivion by hitting that tinny Delete button on the upper-right corner of your keyboard and don’t click any link displayed in the spam. To make sure your system is clean, do a quick check, by running Quick Scan, BitDefender’s free in-the-cloud solution.

This article is based on the technical information provided courtesy of Daniel Dichiu, BitDefender Online Threats Researcher.

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