ZeuS and Other Malware Threats Force Authentication to ‘Step Out’ Of Band

Malware has rapidly outpaced all other banking security threats, and according to a recent survey by PhoneFactor is now regarded as the greatest threat to online banking today. The magnitude of its infiltration into the financial services sector is astounding. Malware has evolved beyond simple keystroke logging functions to perform sophisticated real-time attacks, such as Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks from online banking trojans like ZeuS, which defeat most of the security measures in place today.

Financial institutions and their service providers must likewise evolve their security practices to stay ahead of these threats. This whitepaper examines the current malware threats and today’s best practices for mitigating them. Specifically, this whitepaper will explore the role of out-of-band authentication.