Banks launch protection against fraudsters and cyber criminals

UK banks Clydesdale and Yorkshire have launched a new free service that protects its customers against the threat of online attacks from fraudsters and cyber criminals.

The Banks are launching Trusteer's Rapport software to proactively protect customers from online fraud.

Customers can download Trusteer's Rapport, free of charge, to protect their browser session with the bank making sure they have a safe virtual environment to complete online financial transactions

This industry leading software will protect both customers and the banks from online fraud committed by financial malware and phishing attacks, and provide the intelligence to fight back and prosecute these 21st century criminals.

‘We are always looking at ways to ensure our customers have the highest levels of protection against the increasing fraud threat that exists to ensure they can safely and efficiently conduct their banking online. This link up allows our personal and business customers who bank online to be even more secure and provide that additional peace of mind,’ said the Banks' head of Online Banking, Wilson Ferguson.

When customers connect to the bank online, Rapport does three main things in the background to make it extremely difficult for criminals, Firstly it verifies that they're really connected to the bank's genuine website as opposed to a fake website created by criminals. Although this sounds trivial, if the computer they're using has been compromised with malware, customers may not reach a genuine website when they type the bank's address into their web browser.

Once verification is complete, Rapport locks down communication between the customer's computer and the bank's website. And finally it protects the customer's computer and internet connection by creating a tunnel for safe communication with the bank, preventing criminals from using malware to steal log in data and tamper with transactions.