Stabuniq trojan found on servers at U.S. banks

An information-gathering trojan has successfully compromised servers at a number of U.S. financial institutions, according to researchers at security firm Symantec.

Researchers said that of roughly 40 IP addresses infected with the trojan, known as Stabuniq, 39 percent belong to financial institutions, mostly in Chicago and New York. The trojan apparently spreads through targeted emails or via compromised websites that serve malware through exploit kits.

"These financial institutions had their outer perimeter breached, as the trojan has been found on mail servers, firewalls, proxy servers and gateways," Symantec software engineer Fred Gutierrez wrote Thursday in a blog post. 

Compromises are limited because Stabuniq's creators seem to be "targeting specific people and entities," he said. The current goal of the operation appears to be reconnaissance, not fraud.

The security firm also found successful hijacks at security solutions providers – likely because they were studying the threat – and on the computers of home users.