Majority of BANKS perceive malware to be their biggest threat

Malware is the enemy

In February this year, a Gartner survey of 76 U.S. banks found that a majority of institutions perceive malware to be their biggest threat. But banks, overall, are not making investments and commitments to constantly improve layered security approaches.

By comparison, when surveyed by Gartner in 2008, only 34 percent of these banks said they deemed malware on a bank customer's PC to be a top security threat. In 2010, that response jumped to 79 percent, more than doubling.

In the China-based scheme launched against U.S. commercial customers, the FBI says Zeus, Backdoor.bot and SpyEye were used. One business hit by the malicious software reported its computer's hard drive was infected and erased remotely before the IT department could investigate. Facts about the most common malware:

• Zeus is capable of stealing multifactor authentication tokens, allowing cyberthieves to log in to bank accounts with user names, passwords and token IDs.
• Backdoor.bot has worm, downloader, keylogger and spy ability. It allows fraudsters to remotely access an infected computer, deepening the infection by downloading additional malware from a remote server.
• And SpyEye, a backdoor Trojan, runs as a service process in the background, allowing unauthorized remote access to the compromised computer.

Fraudsters have perfected the technique, first described to the industry by Uri Rivner at RSA over two years ago, of a multipronged attack technique involving acquisition of Zeus or a similar Trojan via phishing or drive-by downloads, man-in-the-browser interception of the victim's online banking credentials, subsequent unauthorized access to the victim's account, and use of money mules to move the funds back to the fraudsters' home country.

The fraud prevention strategy for small businesses don't understand online fraud risks. In the community bank or credit union space, many outsource to third parties. Those institutions should leverage their relationships to get more sophisticated technology.