$100m for a few weeks worth of work? No wonder they are switching to the dark side!

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/FBI-Online-Banking-Attacks-Reach-100-Million-Mark-785125/

I was just catching up on my weekly fix of cyber crime bedtime reading and i came across the above article which states that the FBI is warning mid-sized businesses, government departments and academic institutions against emerging cyber theft attacks. The article also states that in the past few weeks a total of $100m was stolen in the US alone, making one wonder what the real cost of cybercrime was on a global scale. I’d hate to think what the annual figure would amount to when one included Europe, Asia, Oceania and the rest of the Americas.

However, the thing that i found most interesting was the fact that the victims of these latest attacks were all businesses or institutions that one would imagine had solid security systems, tools and policies in place. The latest victims included mid-sized businesses, schools and even municipal government departments! That's right, the cyber crims were now targeting those with some serious savings in the bank (one would assume) and were no longer just focusing on easy-to-exploit home internet users who weren’t technically savvy or who had limited security systems in place!

Organisations of such size usually employ multiple layers of traditional security, including gateway devices (firewalls, UTMs, IDS/IPS, anti-spam devices etc), endpoint anti-virus software and even in-the-cloud filtering services (web and email malware, content etc). In addition, these security services are usually deployed and managed by technically-competent professionals or outsource partners.

So where’s the hole in these security systems?

Quite simply, they don’t secure internet-based transactions, but rather scan or filter for known threats in web-based traffic or on computer hard-drives! Yes, they are good at protecting organisations from KNOWN malware, but they fail in protecting organisations from self-induced threats, such as end users actioning phishing emails or executing sophisticated malware attached/embedded in an email/webpage (rootkits, Trojans etc). Once the user self-induces infection, then the malware will happily reside on their machine and do its nasty work undetected.

So what’s the solution?

Organisations (and anyone else using the internet for online transactions such as online trading, online shopping and online banking) should deploy transactional security services that not only scan computers for known and unknown malware, but also secure online transactions via sophisticated isolation and lockdown mechanisms. In doing so, any malware which has been self-induced by the user or which has slipped through the existing security systems will remain isolated from online transactions. Thus, even if your computer is infected, the malware will be unable to penetrate the online session or intercept information being exchanged, rendering it useless. In addition, the security solution would alert you to the fact that known malware or suspicious applications were running on your machine.

I sleep much better knowing that my family’s computers are protected with a security solution that secures internet-based transactions from attacks such as phishing, pharming, man-in-the-middle, man-in-the-browser, DNS poisoning, Trojans, spyware, adware, keyloggers and rootkits. Even better, this security service operates with all internet browsers and costs me less than a dinner-for-two at a fast food restaurant.

I call it online peace of mind.