“The details of about 500,000 online bank accounts and credit and debit cards have been stolen by a virus described as ‘one of the most advanced pieces of crimeware ever created,'” Maggie Shiels reports for BBC News.
“The Sinowal trojan has been tracked by RSA, which helps to secure networks in Fortune 500 companies,” Shiels reports.
Shiels reports, “RSA said the trojan virus has infected computers all over the planet. ‘The effect has been really global with over 2000 domains compromised,’ said Sean Brady of RSA’s security division.”
“The RSA’s Fraud Action Research Lab said it first detected the Windows Sinowal trojan in Feb 2006,” Shiels reports. “Since then, Mr Brady said, more than 270,000 banking accounts and 240,000 credit and debit cards have been compromised from financial institutions in countries including the US, UK, Australia and Poland.”
“Users can get infected without knowing if they visit a website that has been booby-trapped with the Sinowal malicious code,” Shiels reports. “Sophos researchers reported in 2008 it was finding more than 6,000 newly infected web pages every day, or about one every 14 seconds.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Blah, blah, blah, same old, same old. The whole thing reads like a Mac commercial, as usual. Unfortunately, this article also uses a Mac as an illustration with “DANGER” tape over its screen which might lead some BBC readers to be confused. Apple Macs are unaffected – unless, of course, they are Intel-based Macs (unlike the one pictured) that are slumming it with Windows, in which case, all bets are off. Your Mac’s Windows partition can become as infected as any old POS Dell. Regardless, in the interest of fairness and accuracy, BBC News should immediately remove this illustration and replace it with an image of a PC that is prone to this trojan because it ships with Microsoft’s insecure and dangerous Windows operating system.
BBC News Feedback (online form) is here. Reference the BBC’s article URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7701227.stm
[UPDATE: 11:11pm EDT: The BBC has changed their photo illustration to show a beige box PC monitor and keyboard with WIndows on-screen.]
The Mac pictured can’t even “slum it with Windows” since it’s a PowerPC PowerBook.
Dumb asses! These are the same people that call NASA, Nasa.
The BBC is run these days by homosexuals, feminists, and idiots!
@PPC heard of Virtual PC? never was very good, and only got worse once MS bought it, but still.
Yes, the BBC is rapidly turning into the land of the prats, with only Jeremy Clarkson and company keeping it sane.
I almost despair.
quite agree
the bbc sucks
Though I probably agree with your politics, it’s probably unlikely that homosexuality and feminism have much to do with this particular decision (or with this thread). The fact that the BBC editors are “idiots” OTOH, now you’re talking!!!
Jake
“Be wary of clicking on anything in a high traffic site like social networks.”
You’re kidding right? THIS is a high-traffic site! Is that statement suggesting that the owners of high-traffic sites are colluding with the perps by allowing malicious links to be embedded in their sites? Or that legitimate sites have no control over whether malicious links appear on their site?
If Macs were susceptible to these attacks I could easily attract Mac users in droves because I would hit them right where they live. Pride. Think about the kind of bait you could use to catch a Mac.
Hit whores would have a field day. Think of the most outrageous statement you could possibly make and then attach a link to it. Like shooting fish in a barrel.
Of course those who prey on Windows clients have to be way more clever than that because these people have seen it all, they know the drill, it’s in their DNA, and yet millions continue to succumb to their own stupidity and fall into these traps and even go so far as to bypass the remedy! Stupid is as stupid does.
Now if I wanted to get Windows users to consider the Mac I would start a campaign of fear using the idea that Windows will never keep you safe. Even those who know they’re safe struggle with their own doubt.
All your accounts are belong to us!
The Beeb is almost as bad as our network news and their talking heads. It’s sad all over I guess. The most fun I have with the news is finding the typos in the character generator stuff – at least one per newscast on local and at least once a day on national. The asylum doors have been opened and they’re out there!
First time I’ve written to one of these write-ins you suggest here on macdailynews, but this one is just pure stupidity on their parts.
Is that a floppy disk in front of the laptop?
They could at least say “Macs unaffected”. Oh wait, that would be of public interest.
Not to go defending the BBC … though I do enjoy their mystery and comedy shows … but Cullen Factor is WAY off-base with his analysis. Sure, a lot of idiots run around under the guise of “homosexuals” and “feminists”, which doesn’t mean a) they will get a job running anything or b) they are any different from the idiots who run around pretending to be “straight” or “sexist pigs”. Only an idiot would notice one value and presume another, unrelated, value.
About the mysteries and comedies … a hundred hours of excellent programming in a YEAR?!? Must be a load of crap on there!
“The BBC is run these days by homosexuals, feminists, and idiots!”
that is odd, you would think that it would be hard to get republicans to work with homosexuals and feminists……
The fact that this trojan was first discovered in Feb 2006 and is still infecting users is sad.
Freakin’ Winblows using lemmings.
could they not muster up $1300 to get a new macbook???
BBC are the absolute worst dumb asses on the planet. Their lying ass dog reporter got it wrong about Blair and Iraq and the result was 1) the fsuckup reporter was fired, 2) the head of the BBC news division was fired, 3) the head of the entire BBC was kicked out on his ass.
ALL LIARS, LAZY ASS HOMOS AND FEMINISTS LIBERAL INCOMPETENTS.
The BBC is biased towards liberalism. They admitted as much a few years ago. Obviously they are also incapable of objective reporting on tech issues.
The BBC has gone to the dogs!
Why, as a Brit we just had a huge debacle over two of our biggest rating celebrities decide they could get away with making malicious prank calls to an actor saying they’d both slept with his grand-daughter along with other leud remarks left on the actors answerphone.
Both those celebrities worked at the time for the BBC. One resigned and quite likely re-appear on another channel and once again cause trouble. The other has been suspended by the BBC management for 3 months and ordered to pay £1.2 million back.
One managerial level person, this being the top boss of Radio 2, who aired the show hosted by Brand also resigned over this issue.
Now this oversight, you see the editorial quality of the BBC has gone. The BBC used to stand for high quality editorial and well now you see…
I also sent a complaint via the links MDN provided.
So everyone’s got their panties in a twist because their graphic designer grabbed a stock photo of a Powerbook and photoshopped danger tape on it?
Yes, they probably should have used a stock photo of a generic Dell, but it’s not like they scheduled a photo shoot for this. Most likely it’s some poor designer locked in the bowels of the beeb just trying to crank out these graphics so they can go home.
The second time in a week that the BBC have ‘favoured’ Microsft. Legitimate grounds for complaint to be sure.
But most US radio and TV is crap compared to BBC, even though BBC standards have declined in recent years. Bad management in some areas.
What on earth does homosexuality or feminism have to do with how dumb or smart you are?
Maybe I do or don’t agree with either point of view, but what on earth do either have to do with the grievous and spreading problem with all news media failing to check facts?
shen, “that is odd, you would think that it would be hard to get republicans to work with homosexuals and feminists……”
Republican do work at least! Welfare and voting rights, only to those who pay, or have paid, taxes.
Ummm, Macs run Windows, too.
So let’s see, Ted. If ABC News did a story about gay male rape victims and decided to use a stock photo of you with a photoshopped black eye to illustrate the story on national TV you’d be understanding and OK with that, eh?
@ Cullen Factor.
That’s right… NASA is an acronym…. “Need Another Seven Astronauts”.
I know… bad joke in poor taste.
Almost as bad as “How do you pickup Branch Davidian chicks? With a Dust Buster™”
The Dude abides.