Just when you thought it was OK to start thinking about going outside again, we get this reminder that being inside (an office or the new ‘at-home’ version) also has its ongoing risks, such as being the target of omnipresent fraudsters. This posting at africanews.com discusses some results through data acquired from Kaspersky, based on end users of their security solutions during 2019. Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity company based in Moscow. The summary focuses on African results but has some broader information as well, with the risks discussed of course applying globally.
‘In 2019, 773,943 users of Kaspersky solutions globally were attacked by banking Trojans. Of those users, a third (35.1%) were in the corporate sector. African countries were affected too: almost every hundredth user (varying from 0,9 to 1%) in South Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Kenya was attacked by banking Trojans at least once during the past year, yet the share of affected corporate users varied greatly in these countries. This is among the findings from Kaspersky’s analysis of the financial threat landscape…Banking Trojans or ‘bankers’ are one of the most widespread tools for cybercriminals as they focus on stealing money. ‘Bankers’ usually search for users’ credentials for e-payment and online banking systems, hijacking one-time passwords, and then passing that data to the attackers…A third of these attacks in 2019 targeted corporate users, an increase from the figure (24%-25%) that has remained fairly consistent for the previous three years. According to experts, the rationale of this is clear: attacks on the B2B sector could not only provide access to banking or payment system accounts, but, through employee exposure, could also compromise a company’s financial resources.’
We provide member research on cyber security and payments fraud subject matter consistently, most recently in a piece on e-commerce fraud. The results discussed in this referenced posting center upon two major areas of fraud intrusion; Phishing and Malware. The piece goes on to discuss some overall data points, such as the increase in phishing attempts and the focus on banking organizations in almost one third of cases. This should serve as a reminder that fraudsters try to follow the path of least resistance to the money. The authors also point to a large increase in targeting corporate users with banking malware. There are some other recommendations mentioned, for those who need a refresher on the perils of real life where pandemics come and go but fraudsters will always be lurking.
‘Threats targeting businesses, such as banking Trojans and financial phishing, can and should be detected and blocked on a network level – even before they reach employee’s endpoints. In particular, the use of a secure Internet gateway solution ensures secure Internet traffic and transactions and prevents many types of malware and threats.’
Overview provided by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial & Enterprise Payments Advisory Group at Mercator Advisory Group.
