Silentbanker lurks on sites

In what is being billed as one of the most sophisticated cyber attacks to hit the Internet, a Trojan Horse programme has been issued that gets between computer users and their banking Web sites, giving thieves free rein to drain accounts and wreak financial havoc on their victims, says Canada.com.

Dubbed the 'silentbanker', it is a Trojan that computer users can unknowingly download onto their computers by simply browsing Web sites. It operates undetected, with the first sign that it is at work being the possible notification from a bank that a client has been a victim of fraud.

More than 400 banks - including some in Canada - have been targeted worldwide by the virus, which operates across several countries and in many languages, according to Symantec, a computer security company that has been tracking the progress of the Trojan.

Now you can swipe your mobile phone to purchase things, much like a credit card, with a Mumbai-based company rolling out a technology to enable this, says Business Standard.

Atom Technologies has already roped in Axis Bank for the service and is in the advanced stages of beta testing, while the commercial launch is just three months away.

The company is a subsidiary of the BSE-listed Financial Technologies, which runs the Multi Commodity Exchange of India.

In a bid to have a major impact on Africa's finance sector, AITEC Africa will host the African Banking Technology Conference, in Nairobi, Kenya, between 15 and 22 February 2008, says allAfrica.com.

The conference, which will take place at the region's top conference venue, the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, is expected to host over 50 expert speakers, 10 sponsoring companies, and 40 exhibiting companies.

It will hold five master-classes, a three-day conference and a full-day course on innovative banking.

Standard Bank's Argentine branch signed a technology services agreement with IBM, which includes hosting, operation and recovery services, as well as hardware provision, to help the bank update its technology processes, says CNNMoney.com.

The new agreement covers mainframe, disk drives, tape, and recovery services, featuring dedicated and enhanced equipment, SNA network operation, and Web hosting services also provided with new, larger capacity equipment.

In addition, this contract led to the signing of an agreement for the purchase and support of distributed software licences, which include IBM Information Management, Tivoli and WebSphere products.

Misys has signed an agreement with Digital China Financial Software to provide banking software services to small and medium-sized banks in China, says Telegraph.co.uk.

The UK-based software group said the products would be targeted at the estimated 30 000 small and medium-sized banks in the fast-growing economy.

The applications would help to improve efficiencies across China's financial industry, the companies said.