Online banking customers are currently bearing the brunt of a new wave of criminal activity with hackers targeting them with fake websites designed to capture their personal details, experts say.
Software firm Trusteer warns that a new hacker scam recently uncovered in Spain is one of an insidious new breed of malware poised to assault personal and business bank account providers, despite the massive improvements big banks are constantly making to their online security precautions. Online fraud has been reduced greatly as of late due to new security measures instituted by major banks such as HSBC, who now use a ‘Secure Key’ authenticator to prevent unauthorised access to their customer’s cash, reducing the amount of account theft that has occurred over the last year by 32 per cent.
However, experts warn that these high-security measures are being circumvented by criminals using cleverly disguised malicious software. These insidious little viruses will mimic an online banking page after being surreptitiously downloaded to a customer’s computer that are so close to the real thing that it’s nearly impossible to discover they’re not the genuine article.
Simple pieces of software, such as keyloggers, can record a victim’s keystrokes to capture dates of birth, codes, passwords, and other sensitive details, but these methods can be safeguarded against easily nowadays. However, Mickey Boodaei, chief executive for Trusteer, says that the newer, more complex methods scammers are using are much harder to detect and combat because of their stealthy nature.
Mr Boodaei said that the virus kicks in once a customer logs on to the bank, changing the web pages to their own nearly seamlessly, with virtually no way of identifying whether this is part and parcel of your normal banking site or if it’s the scammer’s own web pages due to the highly believable nature of the counterfeit website.