A very sophisticated and powerful banking is on the prowl on the Internet. It is downloaded and installed from malicious or compromised Web sites. Once installed on your PC, it will record your keystrokes, login information including passwords, and will even capture screenshots of the Web pages you visit.

Worst of all, perhaps, it hijacks your transactions and presents you with a fake transaction session. It will capture all details of the session, as well as the money you send to someone else or to your utility company, broker, credit card co., etc. How does it do all this to supposedly secure transactions? It captures all the information before it is encrypted, and sends it straight to the hackers over your Internet connection.

The malware is called Trojan.Silentbanker by security company Symantec. At the moment, says the company, the is not widely distributed. It is also easy to clean off infected computers. However, the Trojan seems to update itself continuously, so you must be vigilant.

Update your antivirus program once a day. Do a full daily virus scan of your PC as well. If your antivirus program finds malware and removes or quarantines it, do not forget to clean out your . Find out why and how, right here.

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here: = > http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

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