According to a recently-released report by security vendors Versafe and Check Point Software Technologies, an amount of approximately €36million ($47) million was stolen from European banking customers over the last one year; with the hackers using a new Zeus botnet version dubbed `Eurograbber.'

As per the report by the security vendors, the `Eurograbber' Trojan virus - which was designed to attack online banking users in European countries - first started spreading in Italy, before finally attacking over 30,000 users of online banking services in a number of European countries, including Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands.

About the mechanism used by the `Eurograbber' virus, the report said that a typical attack by the Trojan was launched when a victim clicked on a malicious link, which installed customized variations of the Zeus, SpyEye, and CarBerp trojans to the victim's computer. The malware then prompted the victims, during their first post-infection visit to the bank's site, to enter the number of their mobile handsets.

Thereafter, `Eurograbber' offered a "banking software security upgrade" which infected the victims' handset with a "Zeus in the mobile" (ZITMO) Trojan variant that intercepted the bank's text message containing the transaction authorization number (TAN), the core component of bank's two-factor authorization. The TAN was then seized by the `Eurograbber' to quietly transfer money out of the victim's account.

Noting that the affected banks have been informed about the `Eurograbber' virus, the report said: "To date, this exploit has only been detected in euro zone countries."