A man-in-browser attack uses Trojan horses and phishing to steal financial information by overlaying a browser window. It captures data as the user enters it, making it hard to detect and remove. The attacker can use the stolen information for various purposes.
A man-in-browser attack is an application capable of stealing login credentials, account numbers, and various other types of financial information. The attack combines the use of Trojan horses with a unique phishing approach to sneak a window overlaying browser onto a given computer. The presence of the Trojan horse is transparent to the user, as it does not interfere with the normal use of the browser to visit websites and carry out transactions on those sites.
These attacks are designed to acquire sensitive information that can be used to benefit the attacking entity. As part of the feature, the man in the browser process begins with installing the Trojan onto your hard drive. The Trojan embeds itself in a file and is often difficult to isolate. Once the Trojan is in place, the virus launches a transparent overlay on the browser which is unlikely to be detected.
Unlike more traditional phishing methods that use links in the body of emails to direct users to fake websites and prompt them to enter secure data, the man in the browser simply captures data as the user enters it. The user is completely unaware that the data is being hijacked, as he is interacting with a legitimate site. The attack doesn’t interfere with the transaction in any way at this point.
Once the data is captured, the entity that created and deployed the attack receives the collection of security codes, credit card numbers or bank account login information and can start using them for a variety of purposes. The victim may not be aware of the problem until several credit cards have been used or the checking account balance starts to drop unexpectedly.
Part of the frustration with a man in the browser attack is that the bug is very hard to detect and even harder to remove from the system. Unlike many other forms of intrusive viruses, the invader operates between browser security protocols and user input. This means that standard security measures will normally not even reveal the presence of the virus.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
