HERNDON, Va., Feb. 18 (UPI) -- The reported "Kneber botnet" cyberattack is just a renamed version of an existing virus most computer users are already protected against, U.S. experts say.
Kneber is a pseudonym for the well-known Zeus Trojan, which has been detected, analyzed and protected against for some time, a spokesman for anti-virus software company Symantec said Thursday.
"Kneber does not involve any new malicious threats. Thus, computer users with up-to-date security software should already be protected from this threat," Gerrit Hoekman said.
The cyberattack was discovered last month during a routine deployment of advanced monitoring solutions, NetWitness, a threat detection and network forensics company, reported Thursday.
Kneber attempts to gather login credentials to online financial systems, social networking sites and e-mail systems.
If successful, hackers could break into accounts, steal corporate and government information and replicate identities.
The Wall Street Journal reports the infestation was the work of hackers in Europe and China.
Damage from Kneber attacks is still being assessed and affected companies are still being notified, the Journal said.
