Woburn, MA – June 27, 2014 – Users in Brazil, Russia and Italy were most frequently attacked by financial malware, according to Kaspersky Lab’s latest monthly report on online threats in the banking sector. In the reporting period – April 19 to May 19, 2014 – Kaspersky Lab solutions blocked 126,600 attempts on computers to launch malware capable of stealing money from users of online banking accounts in those three countries. This was more than a third of the total number of users attacked by banking malware worldwide.
As a rule, cybercriminals try to steal users’ bank card details with the help of the specialized Trojan programs. From mid-April to mid-May, Zeus (Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot) was once again the most widespread banking Trojan. According to Kaspersky Lab’s research, the program was involved in 198,200 malware attacks on online banking clients. About 82,300 people were attacked by Trojan-Banker.Win32.ChePro and Trojan-Banker.Win32.Lohmys. Malicious programs mainly spread via spam emails with the subject line “Internet bank charges.”
Yet another method of stealing banking data is phishing attacks. During the reporting period, Kaspersky Lab solutions blocked 21.5 million of these attacks and almost 10% of them (about 2 million) targeted users’ bank card details.
The reporting period was marked by consequences of one particular event that seriously jeopardized the security of online payment systems, namely a vulnerability previously found in the popular encryption library OpenSSL. The bug allows attackers to gain unauthorized access to the buffer memory of a vulnerable device, be it a smartphone, personal computer or server. The Heartbleed vulnerability leaves no trace and it is still not known what data was stolen and in what volumes. However, most companies that performed online transactions using the vulnerable version of OpenSSL have recommended that their clients change their account passwords and closely monitor any unusual activity.
“The appearance of the Heartbleed vulnerability initiated a series of leaks of all kinds of data in various business fields. This was due to the fact that this vulnerability contained the cryptographic OpenSSL library which is used in different software, including banking software,” commented Sergey Golovanov, Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab. “The absence of an official library update for several hours after the vulnerability was detected and the slow reaction of IT security services at financial institutions in installing the update led, in some instances, to the leak of bank transaction data. That’s why, in the coming months, we can expect a surge of fraudulent transactions.”
Monthly reports about online threats in the banking sector are just one aspect of the Kaspersky Intelligence Services included in the Kaspersky Fraud Prevention platform. The platform provides multi-level protection of electronic payments and prevents financial online fraud. Kaspersky Fraud Prevention integrates server components installed on the hardware of financial institutions, client apps for endpoints and specialized information services.
AboutKaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab is the world’s largest privately held vendor of endpoint protection solutions. The company is ranked among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users*. Throughout its more than 16-year history Kaspersky Lab has remained an innovator in IT security and provides effective digital security solutions for large enterprises, SMBs and consumers. Kaspersky Lab, with its holding company registered in the United Kingdom, currently operates in almost 200 countries and territories across the globe, providing protection for over 300 million users worldwide. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.
* The company was rated fourth in the IDC rating Worldwide Endpoint Security Revenue by Vendor, 2012. The rating was published in the IDC report "Worldwide Endpoint Security 2013–2017 Forecast and 2012 Vendor Shares (IDC #242618, August 2013). The report ranked software vendors according to earnings from sales of endpoint security solutions in 2012.
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