Kaspersky offers solutions: Your money in the bank could be stolen online

BAGUIO CITY -- Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, says the growing dependence on the Internet – from buying products to transacting remittances, carrying out deposits and transferring funds online – poses costly danger and highlights the need for heightened protection for online users.

A report released in May 2002 by Kaspersky Lab and O+K Research showed that 77 percent of computer users were making online purchases and another 69 percent were managing their financial accounts remotely.

Another report by the IDC also in 2012 showed that globally, there were one billion online purchases worth over US$1.2 trillion. IDC also reported that 60 percent of Internet users pay for purchases online, not far from the Kaspersky Lab and O+K report.

Social networks are used in even great numbers, but gaining access to the other people’s accounts is less lucrative than stealing money from online bank accounts, said Jesmond Chang, corporate communications manager of Kaspersky Lab South East Asia. 

These figure indicates the growing trend of doing financial transactions online which is direct result of the availability of such online services offered by financial institutions, remittance centers and retail stores, Chang told a media briefing at the Forest Hotel in Camp John Hay here Friday.

According to the Kaspersky manager, currently, these online payment offerings can now be conveniently completed not just through PCs and laptops anymore but also through handheld devices such as smartphones and tablets.

But part of that convenience reportedly come the need to protect one’s financial accounts from being preyed upon by cybercriminals.

Given the connectivity of the Internet to anyone with access allows cyber criminals to steal personal data as well as gain access to financial data, her said.

Cybercriminals have the capability of hunting and destroying not just a person’s data but also stealing their accounts, he said.

“Many people are not aware of the attack patterns of cybercriminals nor do they have knowledge on how to protect themselves.Various tools are used by cybercriminal tricks and to provide heightened security to online users, Kaspersky Lab has developed a new technology called “Safe Money”, an anti-phishing feature of its powerful consumer product Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) 2013.”

The Safe Money technology ensures maximum protection especially for online banking and payment transactions.  But this feature provides top security for all other internet activities, too.

Kaspersky Lab’s Safe Money online protection technology consists of thr4ee components which together provide deep-level control at all stages of the online payment process:

Trusted sites – Safe Money automatically checks a financial website against the database of trusted addresses maintained by Kaspersky Lab or specified by the user. If a match is found, the browser switches to Safe Money mode, which provides special protection and extra security for all online operations. This guarantees that the user opens the genuine site of the bank or payment system, and not fake site hosted by fraudsters.

Trust Connection – Kaspersky Lab’s digital certificate verification service can be used to establish beyond doubt that the site being visited is authentic. If the certificate cannot be verified, Kaspersky Internet Security blocks access to the online payment site.

Trusted environment – Safe Money checks the security of the computer on which the transaction is to be made before every online purchase or payment. This includes scanning the operating system for vulnerabilities. The presence of vulnerabilities makes banking transactions unsafe, and the user is prompted to remove them in automatic mode using Windows Update.

Safe Money also has two options to input usernames and passwords in websites: the Virtual Keyboard, which is displayed on the user’s screen and controlled via the mouse; and Secure Keyboard, a new feature that uses a special driver to protect data input from a hardware keyboard.

When the payment transaction via Safe Money is complete, the user is automatically redirected to a normal browser window to finish the process or continue shopping in the online store.

Both Virtual Keyboard and Secure Keyboard features help protect and Internet user’s privacy and digital identity by minimizing keystrokes which are main targets of keyloggers, hackers and identity thieves.

“Most of us are storing data about ourselves online and by doing so, we are putting up our own digital identities to share with everyone on the internet. From storing personal data, we now even trust the Internet with our financial data.

It is very convenient and saves us so much time and effort than actually lining up at the bank or at the store. But we have to be aware that with such privilege comes a dangerous price --- with internet scammers always out to steal our valuable data, we run the risk of losing these data for good,” said Chang.

“As internet users, we must take every precaution to avoid being vulnerable to cybercriminals. Doing financial transactions online can be safe only if you do it backed up by a powerful, multi-level security applications. Kaspersky Lab’s powerful security technology such as Safe Money gives you that peace of mind when transacting online.”

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 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 from www.kaspersky.com.

The Company was rated fourth in the IDC rating Worldwide Endpoint Security Revenue by Vendor, 2011. The rating was published in the IDC report “Worldwide Endpoint Security 2012-2016 Forecast and 2011 Vendor Shares (IDC #235930, July 2012). The report ranked software vendors according to earnings from sales of endpoint security solutions in 2011.