As a follow up to my last post, an article on TechRepublic titled “Crimeware: How it works” explains how the two most popular Trojans are created and what they are used for.

The Zeus Trojan Kit costs about $US700 and each Trojan created is different, so antivirus software has problems stopping the Trojan. This because each time a new version is created the antivirus vendors have to update their signature files. There is an obvious gap between release and the antivirus vendors getting the new Trojan and releasing the fix. The Zeus Trojan is specifically designed to capture online banking details.

The URLZone Trojan Kit is also designed to create Trojans that capture online banking details. This is newer, more complex software that creates a Trojan targetting one financial institution. The URLZone Trojans all check back with a “control server” for updates.

These Trojans only work on Windows, so one of the recommended solutions is to use a Linux LiveCD to do your online banking. It really is becoming more important that Internet users adopt alternative methods for accessing the Internet when doing online banking.