A report came this week that a Trojan horse virus affecting users of a Facebook poker app has been stealing credit card data by being infiltrated into a Facebook app from ZyngaPoker.
The news was brought by the anti-virus specialist company ESET and it was further specified in Israeli media that some 16,000 Israelis had been impacted by the virus, and suggested that the motive for the attack may not have been an attempt to steal credit card data but the international cyber war against Israel.
In its report, the newspaper noted: "The Trojan horse, called Poker Agent, apparently targeted Zynga's poker game, hijacking the login and credit card information needed to play online. If a user has not submitted that information, the active virus presents a page, in Hebrew, directing the user to a phony Facebook page that requires them to fill in the missing data before they can continue playing."
According to ESET, it has been tracing the progress of Poker Agent for over a year and it claimed it had informed Israeli police and the National Cyber Bureau and was coordinating with CERT, the international computer threat organisation.
However, the virus is not only hampering with Israeli users. As ESET Israel director Ronen Moas said, “This is not the first time we have seen these kinds of threats on Facebook, but it is definitely the first time we have seen an attack targeting Israeli users specifically.
“The fact is that Israel is a small country with a limited number of people who speak Hebrew, and that has somewhat protected us, because hackers prefer to write attacks that will affect a larger number of people in bigger countries, where they can profit more,” Moas said.
He also added that it seems the distributors of the virus were motivated by something other than money. “I wouldn't be surprised if this attack turned out to be part of the international cyber terror campaign being conducted against Israel daily,” he concluded.
Your feedback
Please enter your comment.
Your comment is added.