Until very recently, the fact that a virus can attack your bank acounts was considered only a scare tactic. In Canada, the “silentbanker” attacked more than 400 banks in Vancouver. This happened in 2008, as holders had their accounts drained simply because some irresponsible computer users opened the banks’ websites without virus protection. The result: they’ve allowed a sophisticated virus program to infiltrate the banks’ systems. This allowed hijackers to access hundreds of bank accounts and drain out the money from remote computers.

Previous proofs that a virus can attack your bank acounts were less harmful and didn’t cause this much damage. Hijackers were only able to get a hold of the account holders’ email addresses, letting them send spam messages which were purportedly from the bank. The links in the email, though, led to different sites which looked a lot like the banks’ websites but which were actually pages that allowed spywares and malwares to creep into your operating systems.

These previous malwares and spywares did not allow hijackers to drain out bank accounts, but they certainly served as bad precedents. In a few years, hackers were already able to write virus programs which did not only cause system crashes. They caused more permanent damage by using not foil pages as tools but actual bank pages. They were able to add buttons in the bank accounts pages which, when clicked by the unsuspecting account holder, would allow them to access everything in the page. Hence, hackers were able to drain money out of the hacked accounts.

Now that it’s very obvious how a virus can attack your bank acounts, it becomes an obvious necessity for you to protect your computers from virus infections. Make sure that you have an updated anti-virus software program installed before surfing the internet or transferring files from other disks and computers. Run scans first before any transfers, and clean your system on a regular basis. Updating the software is a must because new virus programs are created every day.

Installing an anti-virus program can’t totally cross out the fact that a virus can attack your bank acounts. You also have to work on your surfing habits so you can prevent virus infections from infiltrating your system at all. After all, viruses are created first before the shields of your anti-virus software are updated. You don’t want to be the unlucky one who gets hit with the infection first. To dodge viruses, don’t browse questionable web pages. The most common breeding grounds of viruses are pornographic websites and pages which promise free games. These games and videos, most of the time, have virus programs running on the background. The minute you install the games or play the video, you’re also letting the virus spread and do its damage to your system.

A virus can attack your bank acounts too when you view spam messages from your email. Some virus programs are so sophisticated that they don’t need you to click on links anymore. All you have to do is open the message. To make sure that you don’t fall prey to email viruses and indirectly let the infection drain out your bank accounts, automatically delete emails from people you don’t know.