Carberp Trojan could rival Zeus, experts warn

The position of the infamous Zeus Trojan may be usurped by a new threat that is unknown to four of the six largest antivirus companies, and has already been used by a criminal group to empty bank accounts across Europe and America.

The latest incarnation of the Carberp Trojan possesses many of the tricks used by Zeus to steal millions of dollars from bank accounts around the world. It targets the most popular operating systems and web browsers including Microsoft's Windows 7, Vista and XP, as well as the Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox web browsers.

"Carberp is different. It is very, very sophisticated and I expect the infection rates to be the same as Zeus," said Andreas Baumhof, co-founder and chief technology officer of secure banking authentication firm TrustDefender. He said the Trojan is as yet unknown to the big antivirus companies.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see New threat set to dethrone Zeus on ZDNet Australia.