The Zeus banking Trojan could be a useful tool in corporate espionage…
Zeus typically steals online banking credentials and then uses that information to move money out of internet accounts. In the past year, however, Gary Warner, director of research in computer forensics with the University of Alabama, who has been closely monitoring the various criminal groups that use Zeus, has seen some hackers also try to figure out what companies their victims work for…
“They want to know where you work,” he said. “Your computer may be worth exploring more deeply because it may provide a gateway to the organisation.”
That’s worrying because Zeus could be a very powerful tool for stealing corporate secrets. It lets the criminals remotely control their victims’ computers, scanning files and logging passwords and keystrokes. With Zeus, hackers can even tunnel through their victim’s computer to break into corporate systems. (more)
Luxury car manufacturer Porsche has banned employees from using Internet sites such as Facebook, Google Mail or Ebay during office hours, for fear of industrial spying, German media reported on Saturday. Corporate security chief Rainer Benne told business weekly Wirtschaftswoche that the company feared information could be leaked via social networking site Facebook in particular.
The magazine reported that foreign intelligence agencies systematically used Facebook to contact company insiders and win their trust in order to obtain information.
Roughly a quarter of Porsche’s 13,000 global employees use Facebook and other social networking sites, Wirtschaftswoche reported. (
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Tasmania, Australia –
An overnight break-in in which burglars ransacked Aurora Energy’s Hobart head office has puzzled police and company chiefs.
Only the second-floor commercial section of Aurora was targeted by the thieves, who cracked a secret safe and stole a small sum of cash.
Computers were accessed and documents strewn across the office…
Police have not ruled out corporate espionage as a possible reason for the break-in, which occurred either late on Monday night or in the early hours of yesterday…
Professor John McFarlane, from the Australian National University’s Centre for Excellence in Policing and Security, said yesterday industrial espionage was not uncommon in the business world. “There have been very few prosecutions in Australia for this sort of activity, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening,” Prof McFarlane said. (
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