Notorious Brazil Hacker Is 20-Year-Old Student

A 20-year-old student has been revealed as one of Brazil’s most prolific creator of banking malware.

The computer science student goes under the alias of ‘Lordfenix’ and has been active since at least 2013.

He creates Trojan code tailored to steal financial information, which he sells to hackers for around £190 each.

According to security analysts Trend Micro, the man, from Tocantins, is now one of the country’s most notorious malware creators.

The Brazil arm of HSBC was among the banks targeted

Trend Micro say the student first started his illicit career by posting forums asking for programming assistance.

Researchers say he has now “grown quite confident in his skills”.

His work is now used to target banks including HSBC Brasil, Banco de Brasil, and Caixa.

One of his creations – called TSPY.BANKER.NJH – can identify when a user types a target bank’s URL.

It then closes the current browser window and opens a fake window “seamlessly”.

If the user types in their details into the new window, the information is sent back to the attacker.