Ask The Expert: Online Fraud Protection

Ask The Expert: Online Fraud Protection

Increase in the number of targeted and sophisticated attacks aimed at stealing personal information for financial gain has pushed the case for Online Fraud Protection program

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

NEW DELHI. INDIA: In an exclusive interview with CIOL, Anil Chakravarthy, senior vice president, worldwide, Enterprise Services, Symantec, talks about the company’s latest program - Symantec Online Fraud Protection – and its capabilities to protect businesses from losses due to online fraud and reduce risks to their corporate brand.

CIOL: What have been the driving factors that lead to the introduction of the Online Fraud Protection Program? How different is it from what already exists in the marketplace?

Anil Chakravarthy: Over the last few years, we have seen the security threat landscape become even more mature. This has resulted in an increase in the number of targeted and sophisticated attacks aimed at stealing personal information for financial gain. This has been one of the major reasons why we have introduced the Online Fraud Protection program. The comprehensive managed offering aims at protecting organizations that do large volumes of financial transactions and their end-users from a variety of online threats, including phishing and pharming.

With the Online Fraud Protection solution we are providing a unique combination of products and services that draws upon Symantec’s unparalleled scope and breadth in the security market. It arms our customers with tools to protect against the brand erosion that can result from an attack. Moreover, with our superior malware intelligence and analysis, monitoring and incident response services, customers will be able to quickly respond to fraud attacks, leverage expert command and control during incidents and shift their approach to online fraud from reactive to proactive.

CIOL: Could you provide a detailed overview of the Online Fraud Protection offering?

AC: Symantec Online Fraud Protection is a flexible program that combines a variety of offerings based on customer needs and as a result leverages Symantec’s broad footprint and position as a leader in security.

A multi-pronged approach, the program includes phishing and transaction monitoring, online fraud incident response and counter measures, malware intelligence and analysis, consumer education and protection as well as an expert resident from Symantec. It is also backed by Symantec’s Global Intelligence Network which provides the most comprehensive view of Internet attack activity based on security intelligence data gathered from around the world.

While the solution helps customers safely conduct transactions online, businesses will now be able to effectively boost customer loyalty, minimize financial loss and legal exposure and reduce risks to their corporate brand.

CIOL: What role will the ‘expert resident’ play?

AC: Symantec’s expert resident serves as a primary point of contact for all online fraud protection issues, coordinates all incident response activities and escalations on behalf of the customer. Additionally, the expert alerts on new emerging threats and helps evaluate necessary countermeasures as well as periodically analyzes incidents to identify mitigation measures.

The expert resident holds regular meetings to summarize the fraud landscape, provides executive reporting and acts as a focal point to share strategies and roadmaps related to Symantec antifraud services. Additionallly, the expert resident provides expertise based on years of experience and multiple engagements across Fortune 500 businesses.

CIOL: We are seeing a huge increase in phishing attempts. Could you highlight the average loss numbers for phishing/online fraud especially in the Indian context?

AC: Our latest Internet Security Threat Report reveals that Phishing was a major cause of concern in the Indian security threat landscape and that 80 percent of brands targeted by phishing attacks were in the financial sector. In the last six months of 2007, we observed 345 unique phishing URLs with IP addresses hosted in India and more than 400 unique phishing attacks on reputable Indian banks. Out of these, some of the attacks involved the use of compromised ‘.gov’ servers to launch phishing attacks on other brands.

The report also states that a majority of phished web sites that were detected globally during this reporting period spoofed social networking sites. This is a sign of caution for India too, since according to a recent industry report nearly 5-6 million Indians are actively involved in social networking and spend approximately 25-75 percent of their time online in social networking activities.

CIOL: What is the profile of customers or sectors you are targeting with this offering? Do you have any customers who are currently using this program?

AC: This solution is appropriate for all organizations that conduct business online. However, we are working primarily with financial services companies and other organizations that do large volumes of financial transactions. These include banks, credit unions, high-volume online merchants, online brokerage houses, social networking sites, government taxation and regulation organizations, and hosted service providers across the world.

CIOL: Do you offer any programs or training to companies on how they can educate their customers about online fraud issues such as phishing and how to avoid it?

AC: We provide content with best practices to customers from becoming victims of online fraud and in turn help online users as well. Additionally, we leverage our Symantec Security Awareness Program to educate customers on best practices around security.

The Symantec Security Awareness Program includes a comprehensive set of training and communication tools to help companies met the regulatory requirements specific to employee security awareness training. At the same time, this can help reduce vulnerabilities by creating a more securityaware workforce. It is designed not only to increase security knowledge and understanding but also to influence appropriate employee behavior at all levels of the workforce.

©CIOL Bureau