Dyre Trojan spreads like an avalanche
The e-banking Trojan "Dyre", which targets SMEs, is spreading like an avalanche. In recent weeks, several hundred new infections have been reported daily to MELANI in Switzerland. In the meantime, private users are also increasingly affected.
Among other things, the following perfidious method is used to spread this Trojan: If a computer of a company or a private person is infected with this malware, first all e-mail addresses are read from the mail program and then the malware is sent to all contacts under their identity. The e-mail thus reaches the entire customer base of a company or the circle of acquaintances of a private individual. Since the sender of the e-mail is known and trusted by the recipient, there is a great risk that recipients will open the attachment, become infected and subsequently endanger their own customers or acquaintances.
Due to the acute threat posed by "Dyre," the February 2015 warning remains unchanged, MELANI writes. MELANI again reminds Internet users not to open any suspicious e-mail attachments. The malware disguises itself as a fax message, fictitious order, delivery, invoice or payment, among other things.
In addition to the usual rules of conduct, the reporting office recommends:
- Be careful when dealing with e-mails, even if they appear to come from trustworthy senders. If in doubt, check with the sender of the email by phone before opening an attachment.
- If you have already received suspicious emails and opened the file attachment, we recommend that you scan your system with a virus scanner or a malware removal tool. You can find instructions on how to do this at this link
- If, when logging into e-Banking after entering the login information (password, mTAN/token), you receive a lock screen, e.g. "e-Banking is currently unavailable", contact your bank immediately.
- If other unusual occurrences occur during the login process (e.g. minute timer display, etc.), the bank should also be contacted.
- Make sure that you have an up-to-date antivirus program installed on your computer and scan your computer with it regularly (full system scan).
- Consult the MELANI fact sheet IT Security for SMEs and the 10-point program to increase IT security on the federal SME portal: Security measures for the IT infrastructure SMEs
