India is ranked third among countries with a high number of financial Trojan infections, where cyber criminals defraud customers of online banking services. In a report made by security solutions firm Symantec said, “Although global detections dropped, financial Trojans are becoming far more capable and criminals are increasingly targeting institutions directly... India was preceded by the US and Germany.”
India has consistently moved up the rankings for countries, from No. 5 in 2014, to 3 in the current year. “For our research, we extracted configuration files from 656 active malware samples. Within those files, we found 2048 URL patterns that show that the Trojans are targeting customers of 547 organisations in 49 countries,” the report said. Total number of financial Trojan detections dropped in 2015, with a 73 per cent drop as compared to the previous year. “All types of financial institutions are targeted, from small local branches to big global players. Over 60,000 computers in India were compromised with financial Trojans in 2015.”
Globally, the financial sector was the highest targeted sector in January with 40.2 per cent of all spear-phishing attacks, it added. The report said the primary distribution vector for financial fraud malware is through malicious spam email attachments. Symantec said users should exercise caution when receiving unsolicited, unexpected, or suspicious emails or phone calls. “Keep security software and operating systems up to date. Also, enable advanced account security features, such as 2-factor authentication and use strong passwords for all accounts,” it said.
Users should monitor bank statements regularly for suspicious activity and notify financial institution of any strange behaviour while using their service.
