Trojan.Spy.YEK Emerges as a New Spyware Threat to Corporate Networks

A new computer Trojan named Trojan.Spy.YEK has been uncovered by security specialist BitDefender, who has given a stern warning that this Trojan could be used as a corporate spying tool.

Trojan.Spy.YEK shares many characteristics with other Trojans in the way that it is able to seek out critical data and send the collected information to a remote source. The most dangerous characteristic about Trojan.Spy.YEK is that it has both backdoor and spying capabilities, meaning it could secretly infect a computer and go undetected while it performs spy activities (gather sensitive or private data). A Trojan like this could be potentially devastating to a company or infrastructure that harbors sensitive information.

The two main components that make up Trojan.Spy.YEK's dangerous and corporate-threatening characteristics is obviously its ability to act as a backdoor Trojan as well as a spyware tool. Having both of these capabilities would put a local network of a company in serious danger of having valuable information stolen. The backdoor feature of Trojan.Spy.YEK will allow itself to be registered as a legitimate listening service that receives and follows a number of set instructions from a command and control center similar to that of a botnet. The spyware side of Trojan.Spy.YEK will allow it to separately handle the process of sending data about the infected system such as screen shots or detailed information about files and its operating system. All of this data would be transferred to a remote source, usually a FTP server, without the consent of the computer operators. The data obtained would essentially arm a hacker with enough information to potentially 'take down' or obtain control over a network of computers at a given corporation. Not only that, but the stolen data could also be used for monetary gain. The possibilities are almost endless.

Trojan.Spy.YEK has also been discovered to run on all versions of Windows with no issues while staying undetected. This reminds us of other sophisticated malware, such as Stuxnet, which was designed to threaten industrial infrastructures. Researchers believe that the type of malware created to attack industries and corporate networks is on the rise. Corporate espionage would technically no longer be a threat from a local source but one from an unknown remote source that is virtually impossible to detect without tools specifically designed to notice infiltration.

Corporations and industrial infrastructures around the world are all on edge with the recent discovery of these new sophisticated malware threats. The implications of important network infrastructures being infiltrated by malware could have catastrophic results. The day when private data is no longer 'private', is the day that part of the world ceases to conduct business literally affecting millions of people. Do you believe this is what the hackers that create this malware want to happen or are they looking for a quick payday?