The increasing amount of consumers conducting online banking on their tablets and smartphones has resulted in an increase in incidents of Internet banking fraud worldwide.
Trojans are the weapons of choice for cyber bank robbers seeking to gain access to victims' accounts. Trojans are non-replicating computer malware programs that appear harmless, but have a malicious purpose. In the case of online banking, Trojans gain access to consumers' online banking details, which are then used to actively interfere with the payment process and divert legitimate transactions to other accounts without detection.
According to Lutz Blaeser, MD of Intact Security, consumers who think the anti-virus software installed on their desktops, laptops or mobile devices will provide sufficient protection against these Trojans have a false sense of security. "Recent statistics reveal that traditional anti-virus programs don't cover all the newer threats, leaving online banking consumers exposed to inestimable risk."
For their part, banks are constantly trying to improve the security of their online banking systems by deploying new TAN (Transaction Authentication Number) procedures; by ensuring there is efficient SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption in the Internet gateway; and by using secure servers and transaction practices, to name but a few. However, there remains a security vulnerability at the user's computer and this is exploited by the Trojans.
In online banking, a connection to the bank is established via a browser library stored in the computer's memory. This is where the data from the SSL connection is decoded, creating the perfect target for Trojans.
Blaeser explains that these banking Trojans have an average life cycle of 27 hours (or maximum three days) and that new versions appear every eight hours. For this reason, Intact Security is now offering G Data's new BankGuard product.
"This new, patent-pending technology has been developed especially to protect users against all known and unknown Trojans targeted towards online banking," says Blaeser. "Since new banking Trojans are being developed constantly, G Data's BankGuard offers protection in real time. It is completely signature-independent, is compatible with all anti-virus and security software that are currently on the market, is fully integrated into the browser, and has plug-ins for Firefox browsers and MS Internet Explorer, with support for additional browsers currently under development."
Blaeser says BankGuard offers a high detection rate for banking Trojans because it does not depend on virus signatures, but rather uses intelligent algorithms to automatically detect attempted infections. It then replaces the compromised memory area with safe copy, thereby warding off attacks even from new Trojans. G Data also incorporates DoubleScan technology, which assists in ensuring high virus-detection rates.
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