The Digital Backdoor, Info from Symantec

The Digital Backdoor, Info from Symantec

Wonder why we hardly hear of bank holdups anymore? With the world of banking moving to the digital world, criminals have realised that the cyber route to a bank heist is just as profitable and more easily executed.

Financial institutions – governed by guidelines and compliance mandates and influenced by competitive pressures to offer online and mobile transactions – are feeling the heat. Cybercriminals have been defrauding institutions and their customers of millions of dollars annually. While bank fraud has been around for as long as banks have, today’s attackers are using a new an effective new tactic – the banking Trojan. These threats are affecting financial institutions around the globe; over 600 have been targeted already, according to Symantec’s latest whitepaper on The World of Financial Trojans. Targets of Trojans are located across Asia, Europe and North America.

Banking Trojans enter through the backdoor, strike with clinical precision, and have evolved to a degree of sophistication that allows attackers to conduct high-value transactions while evading traditional fraud-detection measures. The attackers behind these Trojans are organised underground groups who are not only experts at scripting and automating attacks, but also understand the sophisticated global financial industry.

Key findings:
• Over 600 financial institutions have been targeted by financial Trojans
• Big banks in countries with high GDPs are attacked with highest frequency
• Two dominant attack strategies are identified: “focused attack” and “broader strokes”
• New target regions include the Middle East, Africa, and Asia
• New institution types are being targeted outside of traditional online banking
• Existing techniques are being streamlined for automation and precision

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