Jun 20, 2011 16:58 GMT  ·  By
Virgin Media collaborates with SOCA to warn customers about malware infections
   Virgin Media collaborates with SOCA to warn customers about malware infections

Virgin Media has notified around 1,500 of its broadband customers that their computers are infected with the notorious SpyEye banking trojan.

The action is part of a program the UK ISP announced last autumn which involves monitoring botnet lists maintained by various organizations for their own IPs.

In this case, Virgin cooperated with UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) which monitored the IP addresses that sent sensitive information back to the SpyEye command and control server.

Customers believed to be affected received notification letters together with advice on how to clean their systems and protect themselves from fraud.

The company notes that its not the first time when it notified customers about malware infections. The ISP offers a £6/month Digital Home Support service for people who feel are not knowledgeable enough to deal with the problem on their own.

However, this is the first time when an ISP notifies customers about computer malware based on information received from SOCA.

"The category we are looking at are the ones that put our customers at most risk or the ones that will steal from them," a Virgin Media spokesperson told the BBC.

"It's a small number compared to the four million customers we have, but regardless of that, because of the seriousness it's still important to communicate with our customers," he added.

SpyEye is one of the most popular crimeware toolkits and is used by cyber fraudsters to steal online banking credentials, financial information and other personal details from people's computers.

Unlike similar malware like Zeus, SpyEye is still being actively developed and is seen as one of the biggest threats on the Internet at the moment.

Virgin Media is not the only ISP to get involved in the fight against malware. TalkTalk has built a network-level malicious URL filter, while in Germany authorities launched an anti-botnet initiative in which a number of ISPs participate and inform customers about infections on their computers.