Over the past few years, the Zeus virus has infected millions of financial systems worldwide, capturing account credentials that cybercriminals use to gain access to corporate networks and steal sensitive data. While there have been competitive programs designed to dethrone Zeus and remove the widespread malware from infected systems, a newly announced malicious software is threatening to one-up the infamous do-it-yourself banking Trojan.

According to the article, “Coming soon: ‘Clash of the Banking Trojans’,” a malware programmer plans to release a program known as “Ares”. The malicious software is “a small, lightweight executable that can evade antivirus and be easily placed into PDFs and other exploitable files.”

Despite these unique features, what distinguishes Ares from other malware is a module platform that enables criminals to customize and update it to meet their specific needs. In a post on a criminal online forum, the developer said Ares gives a buyer of the malicious code something other programs don’t — a choice.

“I actually consider this more of a platform which is customized to each buyers liking. This is what draws a line between Ares and other bots.”

While Ares remains only a threat, if released, security experts say the new Trojan could pose a serious danger as it rolls out in numerous versions and targets different businesses. However, systems protected by CoreTrace’s BOUNCER application whitelisting solution need not worry. No matter how the program is customized, BOUNCER proactively blocks all attempts the malicious code makes to run on a system, thereby beating down any new customizable malicious software such as Ares and other malware variants that try to execute on a machine.