AusCERT - Pinch pinched

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Pinch pinched

Date: 20 December 2007

Click here for printable version

Greetings,

It seems sometimes the bad guys do get caught. The makers of a rather nasty
little trojan known as 'Pinch' have apparently been arrested and are
expected to be facing court in the not too distant future.

Pinch wasn't just used to steal credentials and information from infected
users - it was used itself as a product for sale. For just a few dollars
you could get a custom version for your very own nefarious purposes, and
technical support was available. The number of Pinch variants floating
around is quite astounding - over four thousand at some estimates - so
this seemed to be quite a lucrative business model.

Unfortunately the arrest of Pinch's creators will not mean Pinch is off
the net - its source code is available, so customised versions are still
possible, albeit without the customer support.

Have a happy christmas everyone - hopefully you've got a little time off.

Regards,
MDB