Online Shopping from Corporate Computers Put Enterprise Data at Risk

Finjan Inc., a Calif.-based data security programs vendor, said that a new trend has been observed - use of corporate computers for online shopping that raises their chances of getting infection.

Ophir Shalatin, Marketing Director, Finjan, said that the number of attacks on legitimate sites, particularly shopping websites, has increased significantly this year, reported itbusiness on December 4, 2008.

According to security researchers at Malicious Code Research Center, Finjan, data-collecting trojans are the key factors for infecting legitimate shopping sites. Finjan has found that almost 80% of malware currently circulating on the net is unclear. Once the malware successfully neutralizes protection measures of targeted application, it installs a malicious payload, generally an advanced data-stealing Trojan, on users' computers. These trojans are highly complex and sophisticated, and allow cyber criminals to take control of the targeted system from a remote location.

Shalatin added that as fake websites that require a mechanism to evade search engine security, cyber criminals are now increasingly using authentic websites to inject malware on users' computers, taking advantage of high Internet traffic they generate.

Giving more details on the methodologies used by cyber criminals to infect computers, security experts said that online criminals are keeping pace with the trends emerging in the market to use them for developing effective social engineering techniques.

Security experts stated that amidst the global financial crisis, online shoppers are spending more time in searching discounts and special offers, which are exploited by cyber criminals to draw more victims to their fake web pages. They perform this task by simply infecting websites displaying discounted and special offers with malicious programs that compromise visitors' PCs.

Cyber criminals are using another method to infect PCs by sending spam messages along with fake links, offering branded or popular items at special discounted rates. Professional cyber criminals use Search Engine Optimization technique to draw more people on their infected pages that rank high on search engines. When a shopper search for a particular product or special offers, these infected pages emerged as results. These pages are usually hosted on legitimate websites such as Web 2.0.

Experts have warned users to follow online security rules to stay protected this holiday season.

» SPAMfighter News - 16-12-2008

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