Erbium, a new malware that steals credit card details, is spreading fast: Report
A new malware called Erbium has been wreaking havoc on the internet for the last few months. Currently being dributed with cracks and cheats for popular video games, the malware steals credit card information and passwords and hacks cryptocurrency wallets.
Details about the malware were first highlighted cybersecurity researchers at Cluster25 who revealed in a blog post that initially, one could buy a subscription to the Erbium malware for as low as $9 per week during the months of July when it was first gaining popularity. But it now costs somewhere around $100 per month to $1,000 license for a year, adds the post.
According to cybersecurity Cyfirma’s team, they too observed the stealer malware being advertised on Russian-speaking hacker forums. Ebrium is being offered as a Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS), which means anyone with enough money can get their hands on it and even comes with ‘customer support’, notes the research company’s blog post.
Researchers at Cluster25 also suggest that the malware has already spread to countries like the USA, France, Spain, Italy, Vietnam, Malaysia, Colombia and even India. Right now, Erbium is usually integrated with game cracks, but it could soon spread via other delivery methods.
How does Erbium work?
Similar to other information stealing malwares, Erbium focuses on retrieving user data stored in web browsers based on Chromium and Gecko like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox. The malware steals information like passwords, cookies, autofill information and credit cards. In addition to the aforementioned details, Erbium also tries to steal data from cryptocurrency wallets installed as browser extensions.
Research Cyfirma also note that the malware contains obfuscated contents to avoid being detected firewalls and other security products.
Some cold desktop wallets like Exodus, Ethereum, Litecoin-Core, Monero-Core, tecoin are also affected. Erbium also steals two-factor authentication codes from apps like Trezor Password Manager, Authenticator 2FA and Authy 2FA. Moreover, it can also take screenshots from all monitors, steal Telegram authentication files and even snatch your Steam and Discord tokens.
Once the malware is done stealing all data, it is transferred using a built-in API system, where the operators are able to get an overview of what information is stolen from which system in Erbium’s Dashboard.
Users should steer clear from downloading game crack files or cracked software and install a good anti-virus solution and update the system with the latest security patches.
