Latest gang of criminals stalks small businesses online

A rising swarm of cyber-robberies targeting small firms, local governments, schools, faith groups and nonprofits has prompted an extraordinary warning.

The American Bankers Association and the FBI are advising small and midsize businesses that conduct financial transactions over the Internet to dedicate a PC to use only for online banking.

The reason: Cybergangs have inundated the Internet with "banking Trojans," malicious programs that let them surreptitiously access and manipulate online accounts. A PC not used for e-mail or Web browsing is much less likely to encounter a banking Trojan.

And the bad guys are stepping up ways to get them onto PCs at small organizations. They then use the Trojans to manipulate two distinctive, decades-old banking technologies: Automated Clearing House, or ACH, transfers and wire transfers. indystar