In the world of cybercrime, RATs, or Remote Access Trojans, rarely go away. Every now and then they resurface, ready to strike again. The most recent example is AlienSpy, a Remote Access Trojanthat is used globally for phishing attacks on both consumers and large corporations.
The Trojan is a more advanced version of previous-generation RATs, such as Frutas, Adwind and Unrecom, which have been used in criminal campaigns in recent years. The announcement of its action was made by Fidelis Cybersecurity Solution on Wednesday, and it states that among the victims of this cyberattack are individuals and businesses in various industries, including high-tech companies, financial services, government agencies and energy companies.
Like most malware, AlienSpy is distributed via phishing emails, with misleading credentials to trick the recipient into opening it. Most such emails claim to contain financial information about the recipient. The result is that infected systems end up with several botnets and banking Trojans installed, which extract information and data about the computer owner's accounts and movements.
AlienSpy is currently detected by a small number of anti-virus software and some security tools found on systems of large companies. Fidelis describes the capabilities of the new malware as significantly more advanced than its older versions.
The security company advises, especially large companies, to check all emails, especially those concerning the finance department, the human resources department, as well as senior executives. Great attention is needed for emails that contain executable attachments.
