A new security threat is putting financial and personal details of individuals at risk, a security firm has warned.
F-Secure, a Finnish company, has exposed the technique, which involves infecting a PC with malware that can intercept login and password information when anyone using the infected computer visits a banking site.
The technique, which F-Secure has termed a 'Man in the Browser' attack, could be set to replace phishing as the favoured tactic of cybercriminals.
"With the enhancements that banks have deployed in terms of authentication security on their online banking sites, phishing attacks are becoming less and less effective, and attacks such as the 'Man in the Browser' type are set to increase," says Mikko Hypponen, the chief research officer at F-Secure.
The data stolen in the attacks is often stored on an FTP server by the cybercriminals and sold on to the highest bidder.
The news comes at a time when the protection of personal data is making headlines for other reasons, after HM Revenue and Customs admitted that it had lost two discs containing information about 25 million individuals in the UK.
www.f-secure.com
Topic: New online fraud technique warning (Read 737 times)