Trojan Makers Thumb Noses At Trojan Hunters -- In A New Trojan!

The makers of the Zeus bankscam Trojan have nerve as well as criminal intent: A new variation of their credential-stealing malware includes a "Thank You" note to anti-virus companies!Hubris goeth before a fall -- at least that's what anti-virus company Kaspersky must be hoping after discovering a blatantly mocking acknowledgment of their efforts included in the latest variation of the Zeus Trojan.

The message that Trend Micro called attention to singled out anti-virus firms Kaspersky and Avira, offering thanks for providing the hackers with "new quests."

The message also got funky with firms ESET and Symantec, calling them "stupid."

The message is embedded in the Trojan's binary file.

If there's a silver lining here it's the fact that the Trojan-makers felt confident enough of their abilities to escape detection to create the message in the first place -- and then acted on the impulse.

While Zeus has been especially aggressive lately, including a wariant's ongoing attack against government sites, according to WebSense, its makers obviously feel willing to make some effort to call attention to themselves and their contempt for the a/v industry.

That's the sort of behavior, we can hope, that indicates overconfidence, and which could prove to be a chink in their elusiveness.

"Bring it on!" is what they are saying, and taunting a/v makers so openly would seem to insure that the Trojan-hunters will continue to.