The Growing Threat To Online Bank Accounts

5,686,755

That’s the number of registered notifications, according to Kaspersky Security Network’s data, of attempted malware infections aiming to steal money through online bank account access in Q3 of 2015.

145,137,553.

That’s the number of antivirus files detected that contain malicious and potentially unwanted objects. Kaspersky Lab solutions blocked attempts to launch malware capable of stealing money via online banking on the 625,669 computers.

323,374:  the number of malicious mobile programs; 2,516: the number of mobile banker trojans (a four-fold increase). There were also 1.5 million malicious packages installed on mobiles.

Those numbers alone highlight why so much attention — and money — has been put toward protecting online financial data and access to online bank accounts. That’s why Kaspersky takes into account information of millions of Kaspersky Lab product users across 213 countries to produce a report titled “IT Threat Evolution In Q3 2015” about the evolving cybersecurity threats to the financial ecosystem.

“The previous quarter saw a dramatic increase in the number of spam messages containing malicious PDF documents. This quarter, the number of these messages decreased significantly, so the proportion of Adobe Reader exploits also decreased. The overall trend so far for 2015 has continued in Q3: exploits for Adobe Flash Player and Internet Explorer are most popular with cybercriminals,” according to KSN’s report.

The data also showed:

KSN detected and repelled a total of 235.4 million malicious attacks from online resources globally.

There were 75.4 million unique URLs recognized as malicious by Web antivirus components.

KSN discovered 1.6 million malicious installation packages;

“The developments in Q3 demonstrate that the global threat landscape is continuing to evolve at a fast pace. With 5.6 million cases of attempted theft from online bank accounts, and cybercriminals continually developing sophisticated attacks, the use of high quality cybersecurity products has never been more important. It’s vital that all those using the Internet – both individuals and organizations – protect themselves from these growing threats,” said David Emm, Principal Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis team.

To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.