German Court Case Proves that Global Banks Need to do More to Protect...

A German court has ruled that banks are liable for online fraud losses and cannot shift this burden to consumers. Although this ruling is just the first of such instances, it demonstrates that the security state of a consumer's PC is a key element in the whole security approach when doing online banking.

Currently, the banks like to hide this fact in their 'security information pages' where they generally describe what a consumer should do to protect their money. However, this does not seem to be enough.

Why Because the court case revealed that the customer, who did have a paid version of anti-virus software installed, still had his computer compromised by up to 14 various pieces of crime ware including a key logger. In addition, this person lost 4100 EUR when transferring money using the TAN one time password system.

The issue is that banks and consumers need to realise that online criminals are highly sophisticated and have developed crime ware beyond the general phishing techniques that are commonly used to scam consumers. In most cases the sophistication of the Trojan is impeccable and will both beat and hide from traditional Anti-virus technologies. In this case, the crime ware was a highly sophisticated Trojan which was successful in achieving its goal.

The fundamental issue is that the current security paradigm by the banks of 'we will secure our end, and the consumer needs to protect his end' simply does not work any more.

There is an undeniable need for a collaborative platform for consumers and banks.

TrustDefender, a leading Online Transaction Security Solution, has been designed to enable banks to secure online transactions beyond the IP address, right down to the computer or PC, prior to the account holder logging in and during the overall online transaction period.

In addition, the consumer or account holder can always access their account, in a secure manner, even if their Anti-Virus is not up to date or switched off, if their firewall is switched off or even if crime ware or keyloggers are on the computer, because TrustDefender is always protecting them.

How can TrustDefender do this when no other security solution can

TrustDefender's unique online transaction security software utilises a whitelisting approach to detect dangerous applications including crime ware while suspending these applications before and during an online transaction, thus keeping the transaction safe - no matter what.

In addition, TrustDefender uses its in-built and highly sophisticated kernel forensics engine to make sure that the windows kernel (that is increasingly being penetrated by sophisticated rootkits) is not compromised.

More importantly, TrustDefender is complementary to the account holders' existing security software and will enable the bank to provide alerts to the account holder via the bank's online banking website should crime ware be detected, or if the computer does not meet the security policies for online banking.

This can be done silently - as a real-time risk analysis - through the TrustDefender Enterprise Server's Risk Score. This is is evaluated even before a customer logs in and as such can provide a never-before-seen level of security

Prof. Dr. Martin Schottenloher, who heads up the European Operation for TrustDefender, said today ,"This issue intensely highlights the fact that online criminals are stepping up their talents and efforts and are now dramatically increasing their sophistication in order to beat ageing security technologies and methods. This is exactly the reason why we developed TrustDefender."

"Even if the account holder's computer has all the traditional security software installed and running yet (as is becoming increasingly common) still finds itself compromised by one or more of today's increasingly sophisticated Trojans or other crime ware, TrustDefender will detect and secure the account holder before login and during the transaction," he added.

Prof Schottenloher further stated, "Account holders like the convenience of online banking and are usually non-tech-savvy plus time poor, so we wanted to provide a solution that will secure the account holder who is usually in a hurry - even if there is a possible crime ware application that has found its way onto a customer's computer. The customer can rectify the problem later by taking their computer to a qualified computer technician, while the bank can now advise the customer that there is a piece of crime ware residing on his or her computer and that this needs to be fixed."

TrustDefender is a collaborative technology which uniquely provided customers with the ability to become aware of the security health of their computer when transacting online, remain secure before login and during a transaction whilst simultaneously allowing financial institutions to maintain consumer confidence, become aware of potential threats and reduce exposure to crime ware risk.

About TrustDefender: TrustDefender is a worldwide leading provider of 'On Demand Endpoint Security Solutions' to safeguard online business transactions. With its Guaranteed Authentication Program (GAP) protection, TrustDefender is able to guarantee the authenticity of a website. The secure lockdown, safe & secure mode, two factor authentication and the TrustedSurfing database complete the holistic security solution.

TrustDefender employs an enhanced sophisticated 'Rootkit' detection technology and 'Kernel Forensics Engine' that will detect, isolate and secure the PC from highly sophisticated Trojans, viruses and other malicious software during online transactions.

The detailed forensics and intelligence of the TrustDefender system make it the only solution capable of truly 'protecting' consumers and banks, financial institutions, eGovernment and online merchants against the undetectable and harmful crime ware that is constantly appearing to threaten the online environment.

The secure policy engine allows online businesses to educate and enforce the compliance of a home user's PC to their security policies. TrustDefender is the world's first security solution which enables online businesses to integrate the home user's PC into the overall security solution.

For more information visit: www.trustdefender.com.

For media information, contact:

Kerryn Nelson

Managing Director

Big Mouth Marketing Communications P/L

Ph: +61 3 9558 3122 / +61 417 035 536

E: kerryn.nelson @ bigmouth.net.au

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