Trend Micro identifies image stealing malware

Trend Micro has warned of information theft, the compnay has detected a malware, 'TSPY_PIXSTEAL.A' which steals image files from all drives of an affected system and then sends them to a remote FTP server.

Trend Micro said that malware opens a hidden command line and copies all .JPG, .JPEG, and .DMP files. Both .JPG and .JPEG files pertain to file formats commonly used for images, while .DMP files are memory dump files that contain information on why a particular system has stopped unexpectedly.

The malware 'TSPY_PIXSTEAL.A' copies the files from drives C, D, and E of the affected system into its C:\ drive. Then it connects to an FTP server where it sends the first 20,000 files to the server. The company has emphasised that this malware poses a whole new different risk for users as the users rely on photos for storing information, both personal and work-related, so the risk of information leakage is very high. "Collected photos can be used for identity theft, blackmail, or can even be used in future targeted attacks," said the company.

Trend Micro has announced the availability of 'Trend Micro Smart Protection Network' cloud security infrastructure that blocks the FTP server and detects the information stealer.

"Trend Micro Smart Protection Network cloud security infrastructure rapidly and accurately identifies new threats, delivering global threat intelligence to all our products and services. Ongoing advances in the depth and breadth of the Smart Protection Network allow us to look in more places for threat data, and respond to new threats more effectively, to secure data wherever it resides,” stated Amit Nath Country Manager India and SAARC Trend Micro.