CĂTĂLIN PĂTRAŞCU, CERT-RO: 12 Romanian banks, victims of a cyberattack

IT viruses dedicated to banking services have been configured to be used on the Romanian banking market, said Cătălin Pătraşcu, the head of the IT Security and Monitoring Service of CERT-RO.

According to him, the Tinba Trojan is a cybernetic threat which lately has started targeting 12 Romanian banks, and Dridex is a Trojan that targets bank customers.

Mr. said: "Initially the news was that computer viruses have appeared that are targeting for the first time Romanian banks and users. This was a false piece of news. In fact, Tinba or Dridex, are very well known malware versions and have not been especially created for Romania. They are very well known versions, which have been configured to work with the financially services in Romania. Most of the time, those who use online banking have an application or a webpage that they use the service through. The virus has simply been taught to recognize the banking page or the application so it can steal your credentials or to make transactions in your name".

Cătălin Pătraşcu also said that a threat that is on the rise is "Ransomware" - the type of malware that encrypts data upon infection and then asks the victims to pay up in order to decrypt it.

"At CERT-RO we have encountered cases of public and private persons, citizens who have had this problem", said Mr. Pătraşcu, who stated that a guide has been created to fight this threat.

"There is one rule that is as simple as it is effective: don't just click any link you run across", the CERT-RO official said.

According to him, at least a quarter of the public IP addresses in Romania have been reported as being involved in at least one security alert. Approximately 80% of the processed alerts refer to systems that display various vulnerabilities. 20% of the alerts refer to various systems that are part of a botnet (a network of infected computers), according to Mr. Pătraşcu. He also mentioned that the number of ".ro" segments or of sites that have been reported as having various problems has increased 60% in 2015 over 2014.

"The speed in fixing security vulnerabilities leaves a lot to be desired in Romania. There are still vulnerabilities in the wild that have been found three years ago", Cătălin Pătraşcu said.

CERT-RO serves the role of preventing and responding to cybernetic security incidents.