Cronto helps banks to stay informed and secure in the "arms race" against Internet criminals

CAMBRIDGE, England - July 10 2008 - UK banking security specialist Cronto is offering banks a service to carry out an external review of the security of their internet banking systems. This will help banks prevent the latest sophisticated types of attacks that today's fraudsters are capable of mounting. These potentially hugely damaging attacks include threats such as Banking Trojans and 'Man in the Browser', where the criminal is able to intercept and manipulate the live session dialogue between the bank and the customer to commit fraud.

Cronto believes that its unique diverse industry and academic background allows them to help banks uncover unusual security vulnerabilities and develop efficient innovative techniques to secure their systems. Cronto can combine practical experience of detailed analyses of the security mechanisms deployed in a variety of geographies with award winning security research conducted at the University of Cambridge.

Igor Drokov, CEO at Cronto, explains "The threat has moved well beyond 'phishing'. The criminal is now combining advanced software technology with social engineering attacks to threaten a bank's online system. Trojans inserted in the browser can allow the criminal to tell the customer misleading stories that compromise even the most advanced security systems and which are currently almost impossible to detect. Successful 'Man in the Browser' attacks have already been launched against major banks across Europe and the threat is without any doubt accelerating rapidly. Banks cannot afford to wait until they are attacked before they counter this threat. They need to prepare now to be able to react quickly when the need arises."

"Banks regularly review their security systems from an internal technical perspective. However, with rapid propagation of new threats, it is difficult to stay up to speed in the 'arms race' against the criminal. Often a bank will only learn about a new threat when their system is attacked. By this point the fraud has already been committed and, as a result, the security of their customers and bank's brand reputation placed at serious risk." adds Dr Punskaya, CTO at Cronto.

Cronto will review the current threats and then perform an assessment that will take a holistic approach to looking at a bank's system security. This will include reviewing the system from the perspective of the customer and the potential fraudster as well as the bank itself when considering the opportunities for fraud.

Cronto security specialists are uniquely qualified to carry out this type of holistic review and hope that they can help many banks to protect their customers against current and future threats.

About Cronto Limited

Cronto Limited is a leading provider of secure visual transaction authentication solutions for online banking based upon visual signing technology born out of leading edge engineering research undertaken at the University of Cambridge.

Cronto's mission is to facilitate the deployment of secure solutions that both meet the approval of the customers that use them, and can be deployed cost-effectively and in confidence by any banking organisation.

Contact Information

Anni Maxx
Cronto Limited
Phone: +44 1223 750001
Email: pr@cronto.com
www.cronto.com