SEC & E*Trade Financial Alarmed – Bands of Cyber-Thieves Attacking Home Computers & Stealing Money With Keylogger Type Spy Software
Nova Scotia (PRWEB) November 8, 2005 — SpyCop today announced that cyber-criminals and hackers have found yet another use for commercial keylogger type spy software. In an article by Amy Borrus of BusinessWeek, it is revealed how big of a problem Internet brokerage theft from home computers really is: “Online brokerage accounts are being looted by hackers who exploit the weaknesses of investors’ computers rather than the firms’ systems. It’s a new scam, but it’s mushrooming”.
Grey McKenzie, founder of security software firm SpyCop, says he finds it hard to get the general public to understand these evolving security threats. “Gone are the days when an intruder had to physically steal information from your trash or mail”, says McKenzie. “Today these high tech criminals operate from the comfort of their living rooms”. Borrus’ article goes on, “To hijack brokerage accounts, hackers have raised their game to a new level. These invasions, law enforcers say, involve hacking or phishing to extract customers’ information, combined with identity theft and securities fraud in complex scams executed by gangs.” McKenzie is quick to point out that keylogger type surveillance spyware is being used to capture passwords and account login information from home computers worldwide. All this without the knowledge or consent of the computer owners.
Surveillance spyware is used by anyone who wants to secretly record everything that another person does on their computer. This type of specialty spy software is sold commercially to anyone-¦ bosses, spouses, private investigators, X’s and, of course, criminals. There are the simple ones, known as keyloggers, which record your all of your keystrokes. On the other end of the spectrum are the totally insidious type which can record your screen as a picture slide show and then e-mail the recording to someone else without you ever knowing. Many are even made specifically to defeat firewalls, especially the simple one built into Windows XP. “This spy software technology is steadily improving”, says McKenzie, “but so is our anti-spy technology.”
More than 3 quarters of all computer users keep personal information on their PCs, including banking and brokerage account information. Chances are, this includes you. SpyCop finds that many people think it can’t happen to them because they have a firewall and virus scanner. “Sadly, this just isn’t the case”, says McKenzie. “Spy programs have evolved and can bypass firewalls, and virus scanners don’t detect this stuff. Our company has one focus, and that is to develop the only dedicated spy software detector on the market – SpyCop.”
About SpyCop:
SpyCop, LLC is the only company in the security industry to develop dedicated software designed to protect the general public from so called “undetectable” commercial surveillance spy software. SpyCop, LLC is a privately held company that has been providing the top surveillance spy detection solution since November 2000. The SpyCop® software for Microsoft Windows continues to be the leading dedicated surveillance scanner on the market.