Main News Desk

F-Secure warns of spike in ‘Man in the Browser’ attacks

~ criminals use new technique to gain bank account details ~

November 21, 2007

F-Secure has warned computer users of an upsurge in attacks against banking sites, targeting personal user data. These attacks use a new generation of malicious code, in a technique called ‘Man in the Browser’.

The techniques used by cyber criminals to steal web users’ personal and banking data have become increasingly complex due to growing sophistication of security solutions.

The latest method used for these attacks is known as ‘Man in the Browser’. Once the PC has been infected, the malicious code is triggered when the web user visits an online bank site. The malware is capable of retrieving the login and password that is entered by the web user on the real web page of the bank site by intercepting the HTML code on the web browser. This personal data is then sent directly to an FTP site where it is stored, before being sold to the highest bidder on web sites used by cyber-criminals.

Cyber crime began with software that was capable of retrieving the data typed into the computer keyboard, but since then more complicated techniques such as phishing and pharming have arrived on the scene. Phishing uses emails disguised to appear as if from a financial establishment to retrieve a banking customer’s personal information. Pharming automatically redirects the web user to a false site imitating that of their bank when they attempt to visit the real site. These techniques intercept the data passed by the customer to access the real bank site to gain access to the account.

F-Secure’s DeepGuard engine uses behavioural analysis to combat these attacks. This is necessary as the malicious codes are designed specifically for certain banking sites rather than being distributed en masse like attacks using phishing.

Executive quote

‘With the enhancements that banks have deployed in terms of authentication security on their online banking sites, phishing attacks are becoming less and less effective, and attacks such as the ‘Man in the Browser’ type are set to increase,’ says Mikko Hypponen, the Chief Research Officer at F-Secure.

About the company

About F-Secure Corporation (www.f-secure.com )
F-Secure Corporation is the fastest growing publicly listed company globally in the anti-virus and intrusion prevention industry with more than 50% revenue growth in 2004. F-Secure is the fastest to protect individuals and businesses against computer viruses and other threats coming through the Internet or mobile networks. Its award-winning solutions include anti-virus and desktop firewall with intrusion prevention, anti-spam and anti-spyware solutions.

Founded in 1988, F-Secure has been listed on the Helsinki Exchanges since 1999. It is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, with offices in USA, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Japan and the UK. Customers in the UK include Barclays Bank Plc, Tescos, Shell and various educational and public sector organisations.

The latest real-time virus threat scenario news are available at the F-Secure Anti-virus Research Team weblog at http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/

Contact details

For more information, please contact Sarah Crawford at LEWIS,
the PR agency, at:
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7802 2626 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7802 2627
Email: sarahc@lewispr.com Web: http://www.lewispr.com

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F-Secure warns of spike in ‘Man in the Browser’ attacks

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