|
By Cara Garretson
Security vendor Trusteer has introduced a service designed to limit online banking fraud by remotely analyzing malware on an infected PC, gathering samples, and reverse engineering it so that the malicious code can be detected before more damage is done.
Called Trusteer Flashlight, the new service is being offered to Trusteer's financial services customers, which include ING Direct, the Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest, among others. With Flashlight, the firms can protect their customers by remotely conducting investigations into fraud, according to Trusteer.
Banking customers who believe their PCs have been infected by malware can install Trusteer's Rapport desktop forensic and protection software to identify the malicious code. If the code is a zero-day attack that hasn't already been identified, Rapport looks for malicious activity on the suspected PC and sends code samples back to Trusteer's fraud and malware detection team, so that they can reverse engineer it and understand how it committed fraud.
Trusteer returns a full report of the malware to the financial institution, along with recommendations for preventing future damage and attacks. Trusteer also reports newly discovered malware to security vendors, so that matching signatures can be developed to detect the malicious code in the future, officials say.
According to Trusteer, Flashlight offers quicker and simpler fraud detection and protection than the traditional steps that a financial institution must take to protect their customers' bank accounts, which include obtaining the malicious code from a customer's infected PC, indentifying malware variants and analyzing them on their own, then using that information to prevent future fraud.
"Financial institutions and their customers are being targeted by purpose built malware variants designed to evade detection and commit online fraud specifically against their brand," said Trusteer CTO Amit Klein in a statement. "The Trusteer Flashlight service enables banks to counter strike these targeted attacks. By performing a forensic investigation on the victimized computer, Trusteer rapidly provides financial institutions the information they need to mitigate any additional financial losses from a zero day malware variant."
The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) estimates that online banking fraud including the unauthorized electronic transfer of funds totaled more than $120 million during the third quarter of 2009. The majority of fraud incidents reported to FDIC involved malware that had infected banking clients' PCs.
Trusteer CEO Mickey Boodaei will speak about new techniques in defending against malware at the e-Crime Congress 2010 being held in London on Tuesday. Boodaei plans to discuss the company's findings from its research organization's reverse engineering of the Silon Trojan that has targeted UK-based financial institutions.
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
