Dangers in online banking
Online banking is becoming increasingly popular. The possibility of being able to carry out transfers and other banking transactions conveniently and efficiently from any PC is of course tempting.
But is online banking secure?
Buzzwords such as phishing, pharming or Trojans are now even used in the news when reporting on online banking.
The PIN-TAN procedure via the bank’s website is the most widely used security procedure.
Unfortunately, this Internet-based procedure offers numerous opportunities for attacks through phishing or pharming. For this reason, but also because of its widespread use, cyber-.criminals focus on it and try to steal security-relevant data such as PINs or TANs.
Online bankers are overwhelmed
The majority of all online bankers are aware of security threats on the Internet:
- 98% are aware of viruses and malware,
- 89% are aware of phishing and
- 45% have also heard of pharming.
Nevertheless, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office, there were 5,300 successful cases of phishing in Germany alone in 2010. The average amount of damage was around 4,000 euros per case.
The reason: although users are aware of the dangers, they are unable to recognize phishing sites, for example.
Danger will continue to increase in the future
The end of the line is still a long way off. The dangers presented on the following pages demonstrate very clearly that virus scanners, personal firewalls and strict user rights management are necessary protective measures for a computer – but they will reach their limits in the future.
Security in e-commerce and e-banking applications can only be achieved with a trustworthy system – e.g. with a device outside the PC with a smart card, its own keyboard and display for entering or displaying online transaction data.
