Dizengoff alerts on cyber threats in financial sector

EXCEPT urgent measures are taking, financial sector may become a serious target for cyber criminals, according to Dizengoff, which called for concerted efforts in the fight against the menace

According to the firm, over the last two years, sophisticated cyber criminals have penetrated more than 30 banks worldwide with completely new cyber security threats, reportedly stealing more than $1 Billion.

The Head of Cyber security Solutions at Dizengoff Nigeria, Eran Korish, described the Carbanak or Anunak Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) malware specifically targeting financial institutions in a new and much more dangerous way than traditional APTs, which earlier only targeted the bank’s customers by phishing emails.

“This is much more dangerous to you and your bank than phishing. Carbanak is targeting the bank innocent employees, and, through them, all the internal bank systems, in order to gain information on passwords used by both bank employees, and all their customers. It is also gathering up logon histories”, said Korish.

Explaining how this more sophisticated threat works, Korish said that the attackers send to one or more employees working at the target bank an innocent looking e-mail with hidden malware files attached. Once opened the malware installs itself onto the employee’s computer and steals all his or her credentials.

“From there, using those credentials, from thousands of kilometers away, the attackers then get into the bank system admin accounts to gain access to their credentials which are the most elevated within any bank network.