This is very timely as a survey from Forrester Research of more than 20,000 Europeans indicated that only 30% of internet users are happy with online security.
Forrester is recommending a combination of educating the public to potential risks and implementing two-factor security on financial services websites – particularly in countries such as Italy, France and the UK.
They also suggest that collaboration between banks would assist greatly the situation as governments and internet service providers are unlikely to be able to support the process.
Further investigations are bearing fruit. In Estonia, a man has been arrested, accused of using spam to redirect members of the public to a website which in turn put a Trojan virus on their computers. The virus is used to log key taps, thus gaining normally secure information.
A year-long investigation by Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian police led them to believe he is responsible for stealing millions of euros from many accounts in the latter countries as well as the UK, Germany, and Spain.
In the meantime, the issue of potential security risks involved in outsourcing has reared its ugly head. Twelve people were arrested in India, including former call centre workers who had obtained security details of Citibank customers.
The bank alerted police after customers noticed unusual movements in their accounts. More than $300,000 was reported as transferred from the accounts, $20,000 of which has been recovered.
