Indian BFSI Enterprises Suffer Almost Rupees 7Crores in Losses: Symantec

A survey that Symantec the worldwide information security company conducted over hundred institutions from India's BFSI (Banking, Financial and Insurance) sector disclosed that the institutions lost a mean of Rupees 6.86 crores each because of security hacks. Also, so far as Indian banking institutions are concerned, the mean monetary theft during 2010 was Rupees 12.6 crores.

Further, according to the survey, one of the e-threats aiming at grabbing financial data is W32.Sality.AE, which has been a highly widespread malware recently. This one proliferates via contaminating .exe files as also tries to pull down additional malware from the Web, while those running the botnet have the capability of filching data related to banking. There's as well a Trojan named 'Tatanarg,' which tries grabbing data from hijacked PCs while particularly related to online banking.

Another malicious program, Infostealer.Bancos is designed to filch secret financial details, gather e-mal ids, as well as erase specific files from hijacked systems. Meanwhile, Zeus (or Zbot) is malicious software, which lets even the most unskilled computer-invaders for effortlessly filching Internet banking credentials as well as other credentials to gain financially. Moreover, Symantec notes that Bancos and Zeus keep on targeting financial data.

Thereafter, the company names three sources from which attacks are targeted on financial institutions. These are ill-intentioned insiders, external hackers and careless insiders. Incidentally, nearly 23% of those surveyed reported encountering external hacks through loss of proprietary information to the attackers or via phishing. Moreover, starting November 2010, all phishing assaults against reputed Indian institutions were on those in the banking industry.

Remarking about the outcomes of Symantec's study, Managing Director Ajay Goel for India and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries for Symantec stated that Chief Information Officers (CIOs) within India's financial services firms were worried about their data's safety as well as associated thefts prompting in prioritizing IT governance. In fact, the financial industry was forced towards examining the way it was managing and securing its data, thanks to RBI guidelines, the 2008 IT Amendment Act and the imminent Basel III compliance regulations, Mr. Goel added. Ciol.com published this on August 18, 2011.

Related article: Indian Financial Industry Facing Rising Online Fraud

» SPAMfighter News - 8/29/2011