This is the time of year when we all make resolutions and predictions. I’d like to make one prediction myself. I think this year (or soon enough after it) that we will hear more people and politicians talking about the need to address cyber security. It may not be to the same extent we have recently heard President Obama discussing the Christmas Eve Delta Airlines security breach, but it’s probably not that far off…
USA Today
recently reported: “The American Bankers Association and the FBI are advising small and midsize businesses that conduct financial transactions over the Internet to dedicate a separate PC used exclusively for online banking.” The article discusses steps small and medium businesses should take, but there is nothing fundamentally different here than what consumers should be aware of and do.
USA Today explains the popularity of the so-called “cyber-robber's banking Trojans.” Hundreds of new Trojan variants appear on the Internet every day. The number should top 200,000 in 2009, up from 194,000 in 2008, according to PandaLabs, the quoted source. It also discusses the inconvenient truth associated with the ease of distributing these Trojans. Earlier last year in the
IC3 Cyber crime Report, we were informed that most cyber crime attacks are carried out via email. It takes just one rogue email and a click on a tainted link to join the club of folks that either lost their money or their time fighting the banks as they tried to get their hard-earned money back.
“The FBI says it has investigated more than 200 cases, mostly in 2008 and 2009, in which cyber-robbers executed fraudulent transfers totaling about $100 million.” However, “Banking and tech security experts say many more cases of ACH and wire transfer fraud are going unreported.”
Terry Austin, CEO of security firm Guardian Analytics is quoted as saying:
“Many banks rely heavily on their online channels but fail to implement the necessary protections," says Austin. "Cybercriminals are capitalizing on this opportunity."
In my opinion, the situation is basically a ticking time bomb and it will happen because… it can.
Similar to the war against terror, there is no one single silver bullet solution. But, a lot can be done to protect consumers without asking them to go online from virtual bunkers.
Goodmail has been working with the leading ISPs for several years to protect consumers on the email front. And our flagship product, CertifiedEmail, guarantees the authenticity of the sender and the integrity of the message without any action required by the consumer – protecting against security breaches like cyber-robber attacks.
Consumers should be vocal about their right to be protected online – the infrastructure is already available through most of the leading ISPs.
Happy New Year and here’s to a safe and secure 2010!
Gal Chanoch, VP of Product Management