Kronos was a type of banking

malware Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, de ...

first reported in 2014. It was sold for $7,000. It was developed as a followup to the UPAS Kit which has been released in 2012. Similar to

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, ...

, it was focused on stealing banking login credentials from browser sessions via a combination of

keylogging Keystroke logging, often referred to as keylogging or keyboard capturing, is the action of recording (logging) the keys struck on a keyboard, typically covertly, so that a person using the keyboard is unaware that their actions are being monitored ...

and web injection. In 2015, its attacks were focused on British banks. In August 2017, British security researcher

Marcus Hutchins Marcus Hutchins (born 1994), also known online as MalwareTech, is a British computer security researcher known for stopping the WannaCry ransomware attack. He is employed by cybersecurity firm Kryptos Logic. Hutchins is from Ilfracombe in Dev ...

(aka 'MalwareTech'), previously notable for his involvement stopping the May 2017

WannaCry ransomware attack The WannaCry ransomware attack was a worldwide cyberattack in May 2017 by the WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm, which targeted computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system by encrypting data and demanding ransom payments in the Bitc ...

, was arrested by the FBI whilst visiting the United States. He was alleged to have created the software in 2014, and to have sold it in 2015 via the

AlphaBay AlphaBay is a darknet market operating both as an onion service on the Tor network and as an I2P node on I2P. After it was shut down in July 2017 following law enforcement action in the United States, Canada, and Thailand as part of Operatio ...

forums. Hutchins later admitted to being paid to work on Kronos and its predecessor UPAS Kit (named after the toxic

Upas tree ''Antiaris toxicaria'' is a tree in the mulberry and fig family, Moraceae. It is the only species currently recognized in the genus ''Antiaris''. The genus ''Antiaris'' was at one time considered to consist of several species, but is now regarded ...

) as the main developer between 2011 and spring 2015.

References

{{malware-stub Rootkits Trojan horses Windows trojans Malware toolkits Hacking in the 2010s Banking crimes