New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) Banking Trojans or ‘bankers are one of the most widespread tools for cybercriminals as they focus on stealing money and in 2019, a third of such malware attacks targeted corporate users, a new report has revealed.

In 2019, 773,943 users of Kaspersky solutions were attacked by banking trojans.

Of those users, a third (35.1 per cent) were in the corporate sector -- an increase from the 24-25 per cent figure that has remained fairly consistent for the previous three years.

‘Bankers' malware usually search for users' credentials for e-payment and online banking systems, hijacking one-time passwords, and then passing that data to the attackers.

According to experts, the rationale is clear: attacks on the B2B sector could not only provide access to banking or payment system accounts, but, through employee exposure, could also compromise a company's financial resources.

"While the overall number of attacks with bankers decreased in 2019, the growing interest for corporate users' credentials indicates we are not yet seeing respite from financial threats," said Oleg Kupreev, security expert at Kaspersky.

"While we are in the current peak of remote working during the coronavirus pandemic, it is especially important to not underestimate criminals' desire for stealing money," he added.
In 2019, the share of financial phishing increased from 44.7 per cent of all phishing detections to 51.4 per cent.

Almost every third attempt to visit a phishing page blocked by Kaspersky products was related to banking phishing (27 per cent).

The share of phishing-related attacks on payment systems and online stores accounted for almost 17 per cent and over 7.5 per cent, respectively in 2019. This is more or less the same as 2018 levels.

The share of financial phishing encountered by Mac users fell slightly, accounting for 54 per cent.

"Monetary gain is one of the most common motives behind any cyberattack. In the current situation when the entire nation works remotely on their devices, being secure online has become as important as being safe in the physical world," said Dipesh Kaura, General Manager for South Asia, Kaspersky.

Users in Russia, Germany, and China were attacked most frequently by banking malware.

In 2019, the number of users that encountered Android banking malware dropped to just over 675,000 from around 1.8 million.

"Companies can also from time to time release cybersecurity advisories for their employees. We need to fight viruses and threats virtually and physically and stay safe and secure," Kaura added.

--IANS na/