Tips for safe Net transactions

[bholus10]

But it needn’t be a complete stoppage of a transaction.

If the transfer amount involved is small, the system could ask you to answer a set of questions that only you can be reasonably expected to know. And if you get that right, the transaction can be completed.

“Inspite of being expensive and time consuming, banks are now monitoring user behaviour. Any deviation is noticed and is questioned. These additional mechanisms for fraud detection instill more confidence in customers,” says Chadha.

[bholus10]

Companies also face the issue of malicious codes created by hackers looking to access user accounts and get financial information.

Malicious attacks are growing in volume, are getting sophisticated and newer forms are emerging all the time.

So banks spend a lot of effort trying to protect themselves from such activities.

“To tackle that, along with a black list, we are also creating a white list and a reputation-based security system,” says Vishal Dhupar, MD of Symantec India.

[bholus10]

The white list is a huge database identifying popular, legitimate programmes and allowing them to run unhindered.

The reputation-based software rating system is said to be able to accurately categorise less popular legitimate and malicious files.

The approach assumes three distinct populations in Symantec’s user base - one that’s ultra-safe (downloading applications only from reputable software companies), another that’s adventurous (generally safe, but occasionally try out new programs or unsafe websites) and the third that’s completely unsafe (frequently accessing websites that can easily infect them).

[bholus10]

And the classification is done by looking at the history of infections on the users’ machines. When a new program is detected, Symantec’s new approach entails looking at where the program is found.

If a large number of the ‘safe’ machines have it, then it would be classified as a safe program. But if it’s found only in the ‘unsafe’ machines and a few of the adventurous ones, it would be classified as ‘unsafe’ and you would be warned.

Symantec also has its DeepSight information services, a global intelligence network that provides upto-the-minute view of security threats, by capturing and processing security data for organisations.

These information services deliver trend analyses and security incidents data to organisations, which enables them to take proper measures and defend themselves against threats.

[bholus10]

The need for more sophisticated security measures are arising from the fact that cyber crime is on the rise. There was a time when hackers hacked for fun. Increasingly, they are doing it for financial gains.

“A week ago a friend of mine saw an entry in her bank statement that indicated she had bought an air ticket for Rs 10,000 which she had not,” says Vijay Mukhi, a member of the advisory board on cyber security of the Indian government.

“When she contacted the bank, they told her to register an FIR. At the police station, citing jurisdiction issues, they did not register the FIR. She still has no idea what to do.” The onus here lies with the banks, he says.

“The police and the banks have to work together and also frame appropriate polices. Also banks need to come out, file cases of theft and get a few people jailed to set an example and get back customer confidence,” adds Mukhi.