RSA Says Hand of Thief Linux Trojan Is a Non-Threat, Easy To Defeat
The Hand of Thief Trojan made waves among security experts when RSA first announced the for-sale malware. But now that RSA has had a chance to run additional analysis, the security arm of EMC is toning down its alert. It seems that the Hand of Thief is basically a prototype. The only people getting swindled at the moment is the would-be evil genius who buys this broken malware.
RSA doesn’t see the Hand of Thief Trojan as a major threat at the moment, but the developer plans improvements. Image credit: RSA
As it stands, the Hand of Thief Trojan isn’t stable. According to RSA, the software has trouble stealing the data it’s meant to steal, and it can crash your Web browser – something that doesn’t appear to be intentional. And removing the software is just a matter of deleting the Trojan’s files. If you think you have the virus and what to remove it, check out this post by Yotam Gottesman from RSA’s FraudAction Research Labs. That said, the malware’s developer is actively working to improve the Trojan, so security firms like RSA aren’t writing it off completely. The company intends to keep an eye on the malicious software as it evolves.
