e-biz
putting the 'e' into business
Saturday 12 April 2008, 2:58 PM
Panda Puts New Spin On E-Commerce Security
Panda Security, best known for its anti-malware software, has thrown its hat into the online payment arena.
However, unlike the increasing number of e-cash payments services such as PayPal, Nochex and WorldPay, 'Panda Security for Internet Transactions' is specifically an anti-ifraud service for online transactions to protect against identity theft targeting online banks, pay platforms and e-commerce.
What’s particularly interesting about the service - and I’d like to say at this point that I haven’t tested it - is that it apparently warns site owners when there is a targeted attack through malware and offers the tools to identify and block affected users, thereby reducing the possibility of online fraud.
Panda Security says the service is a response to a dramatic increase in online fraud. Today, more than 40% of new malware is designed for online fraud, and according to a recent study conducted by Gartner, phishing attacks caused only in U.S. alone losses to consumers of $3.2bn (£1.6bn) in 2007.
The new solution enables businesses with e-commerce services to take additional steps in order to ensure that their customers’ transactions on their Web sites are not infected by any malicious code that affects their service. E-commerce owners can see the security status of their users and effectively manage the risk involved in online transactions.
This is also the only service on the market offering information about the security status of clients. This can be used by your company to create risk profiles, meaning the service can be configured to restrict the permission to carry out transactions to those clients that meet pre-determined security requirements.
Currently, when users discover that someone has been operating fraudulently using their identity, they claim against the bank or company involved. Consequently, the bank or company is responsible for the loss and associated costs (compensation, insurance etc), and has to ensure that the attack is not further exploited to steal from other users.
They have to find the malware responsible for the attack, discover how to block its effects and implement the strategy, and finally, calculate the impact it has had on its users and its business. This usually takes a minimum of 48 hours; sufficient time for the amount of money lost to increase considerably. Panda Security for Internet Transactions should block the attempted fraud in real time.
Panda Security for Internet Transactions leverages the benefits of Collective Intelligence, a security model developed by Panda Security. Just like anti-malware software, the system is based on the collection of information concerning malware from the Internet community and the automated processing of this data in new, purpose-built data centers. As the knowledge is accumulated on Panda servers and not on clients’ computers, clients’ bandwidth usage and resource consumption is minimised.
Regardless of whether it’s effective or not (again, I’d like to point out that I haven’t tested it), it’s great to see a company offering a service which does not just benefit just online organisations but also their clients - us! Only when companies start taking security seriously will customers’ confidence in online payment systems return.
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