Feds reveal Gozi trojan creator, fraud conspiracy

[Erica Absetz <eabsetz () opensecurityfoundation org>]

http://www.scmagazine.com/feds-reveal-gozi-trojan-creator-fraud-conspiracy/article/277311/

Three Eastern Europeans have been indicted on charges they helped
orchestrate a bank fraud conspiracy that affected tens of thousands of
victims, according to court documents unsealed in New York.

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors announced that Nikita Kuzmin, 25, of
Russia, the alleged creator of Gozi, a sophisticated trojan that preys
on targeted banking customers to steal their login credentials and
other private information, admitted to the hacking and fraud charges.
He was arrested in the United States in November 2010 and pleaded
guilty six months later.

Meanwhile, indictments were unsealed against Deniss Calovskis, 27,
also known as “Miami,” who allegedly wrote parts of Gozi's code and
was arrested in November in Latvia, and Mihai Paunescu, 28, who used
the online alias “Virus." He was arrested last month in Romania.

Since the trojan first appeared in 2005, federal prosecutors estimate
it has infected at least 100,000 computers worldwide, including 25,000
in the United States, causing tens of millions of dollars in losses.

Gozi has been used to steal victims' personal bank account
information, such as account numbers, usernames and passwords, while
lying undetected on compromised machines. Attackers then used the
collected data to fraudulently transfer funds from victims' accounts.
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