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A surge in the volume of malware targeting UK consumers who banked online over the last year has been blamed for a doubling in cyber crime. Latest UK figures show that thieves and fraudsters robbed internet bankers of more than £50million in 2008, up from £23m the year before. Losses from online banking fraud are now the highest since records began in 2004, and are increasing at a faster rate than any other type of payment fraud. Reflecting on its figures, the UK payments association said every person in the UK pays a yearly sum of about £1 for online fraud, compared with £10 for card fraud. APACS explained the former has been led by a combination of phishing and malware attacks, both of which it said were increasingly being deployed to rob consumers. It recommended that PCs have up-to-date phishing and anti-virus defences – a requirement under the Banking Code, which makes consumers responsible for their losses if they don’t. The British Bankers Association reportedly says its members are yet to invoke the clause, introduced last year, but critics say it would let banks wriggle out of covering customer losses. Separately, and no doubt higher on the government’s list of cyber concerns, British spy chiefs have told ministers they fear China may wield the capability to paralyse the UK. Confidential papers seen by The Sunday Times reportedly confirm fears that Chinese equipment installed on BT’s communications network could be used to cripple the UK’s water, power and telecoms capabilities. In 2006, the Cyber Defense Agency said US gas, electricity, telecoms and banking providers who outsource software could be hit by cyber terrorists exploiting life-cycle weaknesses buried deep in the code. Life-cycle attacks occur when one line of code out of millions of such lines is rigged to open vulnerabilities within the software, thus exposing the provider and its customers to external threats. Mar 30, 2009 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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