14 DAY TRIAL // An Australian hacker who was previously arrested for creating and using an information stealing trojan to capture bank account details pleaded guilty. The Adelaide-based malware writer is scheduled for sentencing in September.
Anthony Scott Harrison, 20, from Black Forest, a suburb of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, pleaded guilty today to four counts of modifying computer data to cause harm or inconvenience, two counts of possessing or controlling data to commit serious computer offenses and one count of dishonestly manipulating a machine to benefit, AdelaideNow reports.
The young hacker was arrested in July 2009 after a 20-week-long worldwide investigation, that uncovered evidence that he was responsible for creating a banking trojan. According to authorities, Harrison infected over 3,000 computers with his malware in Australia and abroad and used it to steal bank account and credit card details.
The exact trojan was not named, but it was allegedly used to launch attacks on an additional 74,000 computers, suggesting that it also operated as a botnet client. Judge Paul Rice of the Adelaide District Court ordered Harrison to appear in court for sentencing in September, until which, he is to remain on bail.
Banking trojans have long overtook phishing as the primary tool for financial fraud. Cyber criminals using malware such as ZeuS or Clampi have the ability to siphon hundreds of thousands of dollars from the bank accounts of individuals, companies or public institutions.
These are hit-and-run attacks and by the time anyone realizes that something is horribly wrong with their account balance, the money is already wired out of the country with little chance of being returned to them. Organizations and small-sized businesses in particular are at most risk from this type of fraud, as they are not legally protected in the same way as individuals are and are usually left to cover their own losses.
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