Mobility, money, and malicious intent have formed a toxic brew, a researcher at Kaspersky Lab said yesterday on the eve of the security conference here. And it's a mix that threatens banks and their customers alike.

Cybercriminals are targeting financial services and consumer banking customers, which is no great surprise, acknowledged Eugene Kaspersky, head of research and development for the international antivirus vendor. But "bank Trojans," in particular, he told Dark Reading, have recently demonstrated more malevolence and effectiveness, threatening to overwhelm antivirus researchers and the methods they use to shut down such malware.

Each copy of these financial mutants "is different to avoid signature detection, which takes up large amounts of time and resources," Kaspersky said. There's been "huge growth" in this malware sector, and cybercriminals are increasingly using "anti-antivirus wares" with positive results, he added.

"We don't have a mutation engine in our hands yet, but the hackers do. And more of them are starting to use it."

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