Sunbelt Software Finds ID Theft Ring And Calls FBI

Yesterday one of the Sunbelt spyware researchers found a server with an enormous amount stolen individual information. You would be surprised about the detail of the info: credit cards, bankaccounts login & passwords, paypal accounts; you name it.

ComputerWorld had the scoop!
http://www.computerworld.com/securit...103737,00.html

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Antispyware firm warns of massive ID theft ring
After stumbling on the ring, Sunbelt Software called in the FBI

News Story by Jaikumar Vijayan

AUGUST 05, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Officials at Sunbelt Software, a Clearwater, Fla.-based vendor of antispyware tools, said the company stumbled upon a massive ID theft ring that is using a well-known spyware program to break into and systematically steal confidential information from an unknown number of computers worldwide.

The operation was discovered yesterday during research Sunbelt was doing on a spyware program belonging to a particularly dangerous class of browser hijacking tools called CoolWebSearch (CWS), according to Sunbelt's president, Alex Eckelberry.

CWS programs are extremely hard to detect and remove, and are used to redirect users to Web sites that use spyware tools to collect a variety of information from infected computers.

The CWS variant being researched by Sunbelt turned infected systems into spam zombies and uploaded a wide variety of personal information to a remote server apparently located in the U.S. That server holds a "treasure trove of information" for ID thieves, Eckelberry said.

Sunbelt's research showed that the information being uploaded to the remote server included chat sessions, user names, passwords and bank information, he said. The bank information included details on one company bank account with more than $350,000 in deposits and another belonging to a small California company with over $11,000 in readily accessible cash, he said.

Many of the records being uploaded also contained eBay account information, he said. Among the highly personal bits of information Sunbelt was able to retrieve from the server were one family's vacation plans, instructions to a limo driver to pick up passengers from an airport and details about one computer user with a penchant for pedophilia.

Sunbelt officials did not say how they accessed the material. But the existence of a large file that the company said it retrieved from the remote server was confirmed by Computerworld. Sunbelt said the file contained user names, addresses, account information, phone numbers, chat session logs, monthly car payment information and salary data.

"It's one of the most egregious things we have ever seen," Eckelberry. "We know this kind of data is out there, but this is the first time we actually have the data that the criminals are using."

Information gathered from infected computers is uploaded to the remote server and stored in highly organized files that appear to be accessed by multiple ID thieves, Eckelberry said. The files grow to anywhere from 10MB to 20MB in size before they are refreshed with new information, he said.

The FBI has been contacted and is working on the case, Eckelberry said. In addition, Sunbelt has contacted some of the individuals and banks whose data has been logged to warn them of the compromise.

The domain of the remote server appears to have been registered in China, although the server itself is located in the U.S., Eckelberry said. "We are working to get that server taken down."

He declined to offer more details.

A spokesman for the FBI could not be reached for comment.

Sunbelt's discovery brings home the seriousness and scope of the growing ID theft problem, said Pete Lindstrom, an analyst at Spire Security LLC in Malvern, Pa.

"I think this stuff is much more significant than the notification of [compromises] by credit card companies," Lindstrom said. That's because the credit card industry as a whole has better controls in place to detect and prevent abuses resulting from such compromises than individuals, he said.

"This stuff hits home because it's personal. It's like taking something out of your home," Lindstrom said. "Each and every one of these accounts can be compromised, and it hurts someone."

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More here from the latest Spywareinfo newsletter:

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Get a good grip on your chair because this story might knock you right out of it. I've just finished picking myself up off the floor after reading about this.

While investigating a new mutation of the CoolWebSearch trojan, a Sunbelt researcher was astounded to discover that it was being used for identity theft. All manner of personal information is being uploaded to a publicly-viewable web server, including eBay passwords, Paypal passwords and passwords for bank accounts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Anyone who knows this web server's IP address can view all of this information!

After initially rebuffing Sunbelt when they first made contact, the FBI now is said to be investigating the matter. Sunbelt also has tried contacting some of the victims of this identity theft.

CoolWebSearch is a particularly nasty browser hijacker with countless variations. They have hundreds, possibly thousands, of affiliated web sites who all feed traffic into coolwebsearch.com. Many of those affiliates use exploits for various flaws in Windows and Internet Explorer to install browser hijackers.

The motivation behind all of this, of course, is money. Coolwebsearch.com is nothing more than a collection of paid listings. If someone clicks the links on their web site, they are paid a small commission from the owner of the site being linked. In turn, CoolWebSearch pays their affiliates to drive traffic to their site.

They almost always have used unethical and possibly illegal methods to install this hijacking software. This is the first time, to my recollection, that they or one of their affiliates have done something so blatantly illegal. I have been practically begging the FTC to investigate CWS for well over a year. Although I am saddened that so many people have been victimized by this crime, I am glad that CoolWebSearch finally will be investigated for their activities.

We are going to keep an eye on this story. As we find more information about it, we will be posting it in SpywareInfo's news section. Keep an eye on this page or on this RSS feed for more information as soon as we see it.

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