Majority of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are not familiar with the banking Trojans used to attain access to and steal from their online accounts, according to a new study by Panda Security.
The study, which was conducted on 300 executives and finance professionals from SMBs across 38 industry sectors in the US, found that 52% of those surveyed had little or no familiarity with banking Trojans, the criminal software used to facilitate unauthorised access to a user’s online banking account.
According to the study, 11% of SMBs reported experiencing at least one incident of online fraud, while majority of respondents (63 %) remain concerned about online banking fraud or identity theft in their organisations.
The survey also found that 63% of them strongly or somewhat believed their bank would return all of the funds to their possession, while only 37% of the victims say all of the stolen funds were actually returned.
The firm said that 58% of respondents do not have insurance to protect their business from banking fraud or identity theft, or are unsure if they have any protections in place, while 64% of respondents have protective and/or procedural methods in place at their organisations to detect or prevent online banking fraud.
In addition, the study also found that almost one out of seven respondents (15%) have not updated security software on all systems or are unsure of the status of their security software altogether and 71% of SMBs are somewhat likely to implement new protective or procedural methods in the future to prevent online banking fraud.
Sean-Paul Correll, threat researcher at PandaLabs, said: While online banking security is a general concern among most SMBs, most of them have little knowledge about the specific threats targeting organisations of their size.
“In addition, US law puts the burden on business owners for keeping funds secure, rather than the banks. The majority of SMBs surveyed weren’t aware of this fact, which means they are operating with a false sense of security.
