Kaspersky Lab publishes an article entitled "Brazil: a country rich in banking Trojans"

Kaspersky Lab announces the release of an article entitled “Brazil: a country rich in banking Trojans” by Dmitry Bestuzhev, Senior Regional Researcher for Latin America. The article provides an overview of how cybercriminals target online banking systems.

Statistics show that Brazil is a major source of banking Trojans – malicious programs designed to target online banking customers. The article describes how these Trojans are used to stealthily penetrate computers belonging to Brazilian users and how cybercriminals use them to steal funds from victims' bank accounts.

"Brazil's highly stratified social structure often means that those on a low income are drawn into illegal activity, including writing malicious programs designed to steal banking data," says the author. "Additionally, Brazil does not have legislation which effectively combats cybercrime." Bradesco, Caixa, Banco do Brasil and Itaú are the banks most commonly targeted by banking malware.

Additionally, “social networking sites have become an important source for almost any type of personal information: full name, date of birth, address etc. This information can easily be used by cybercriminals to "officially" get a user's PIN code from a bank's call center" states the article.

Dmitry Bestuzhev concludes with details on how cybercrime can be combated and recommends Brazilian banks should invest more heavily in security solutions which will offer their customers reliable protection, including distributing tokens or other security devices free of charge.

The full version of the article is available at www.viruslist.com/en. A summary of the article can be found at www.kaspersky.com.

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