India Ranked 7th in Attacks by Trojans in Banking

In recently released Symantec’s study, ‘The State of Financial Trojans of 2013’, it has been revealed that there is an increasing menace caused by Trojans amongst banking and financial institutions across the globe. India is no exception. In fact, India is one of the most targeted nations in terms of Trojans. The study has revealed that India ranks at number 7 in the number of computers compromised by banking Trojans in 2013

In nearly 95% of cases, financial sector institutions were targeted
In this analysis, 1,086 configuration files were examined. Over 2,000 domains belonging to more than 1,400 distinct institutions were identified in these configurations. In nearly 95 per cent of cases, financial sector institutions were targeted. The remaining five per cent were traditional online services like social media, employment websites, auction houses  and webmail.

The Internet among many things has made our daily activities very convenient, especially when it is percolated to mobile devices. Among other activities consumers now prefer ‘armchair banking’ where banking transactions are carried out easily. However, attackers who are financially motivated, target these online banking services and financial institutions by leveraging advanced Trojans to commit large scale financial fraud.

Cybercriminals use advanced Trojans to commit large scale financial fraud
Financial institutions have been fighting malware that targets online banking for over ten years. During that timeframe, banks have had to evolve their security measures to protect online transactions from fraud. Attackers adapted to these countermeasures and sophisticated banking Trojans began to emerge. In many situations, financial institutions adopted custom security solutions. However, many of these security implementations are ineffective at protecting against the modern banking Trojan. Cybercriminals who are motivated by financial reward are using these advanced Trojans to commit large scale financial fraud, targeting institutions across the globe.

Key findings:

• India ranks at number 7 in the number of computers compromised by banking Trojans in 2013
• Over 1,400 financial institutions are targeted by financial Trojans
• The top 15 targeted financial institutions were targeted by more than 50 per cent of the Trojans
• Institutions in 88 countries have been targeted; Continued expansion into the Middle East, Africa and Asia
• New institution types are being targeted outside of traditional online banking
• In the first three quarters of 2013, the number of financial Trojans has grown by three times, representing nearly half a million infected computers per month that are susceptible to fraud.

 To get a better understanding of the mechanics behind financial Trojans and the scale of their operations, Symantec analyzed over 1,000 recent configuration files belonging to eight online banking Trojans.

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