Trusteer dismisses HSBC and Natwest bank hacking claims

Trusteer has dismissed reports that criminals are exploiting a vulnerability in its Rapport browser-lockdown technology that is used by leading banks such as HSBC and NatWest.
Trusteer chief executive officer Mickey Boodaei told V3 that recent reports of an exploitable vulnerability in its Rapport banking service are inaccurate as it does not work, confirming the company is aware of the issue and has already taken appropriate action.
"There is no malware that incorporates this vulnerability. Moreover, Trusteer has accurate intelligence on the fraudsters who wrote, sold, and published this code, which we shared with law enforcement agencies," he said.
"This is just one out of many attempts to circumvent Rapport, which we fight on an ongoing basis. This time with great success as the group that wrote this code is most likely responsible for various fraudulent activities against UK banks."
Trusteer's Rapport technology is used by numerous financial firms, including NatWest and HSBC in the UK, and is designed to protect the banks' customers against Trojans, like the infamous Zeus.
The vulnerability was first reported on the Full Disclosure forum and reportedly lets crooks bypass the browser's lockdown security features to sneak a banking Trojan onto the victim's machine.
Reports have since emerged about a number of cybercrime forums, suggesting that criminals are already exploiting the security vulnerability. However, Trusteer said this exploit does not work.
Trusteer chief technology officer Amit Klein added that a patch fix is already available and is being automatically rolled out to all Rapport customers.
"The patch for this vulnerability is available and is being rolled out automatically to the entire Trusteer Rapport customer base. No action is required from Rapport users," he said.
"This vulnerability has no impact on Rapport's ability to block financial malware like Zeus, KINS, Carberp, Gozi, Tilon and Citadel as Rapport uses additional mechanisms, other than the mechanism impacted by this vulnerability, to block these malware strains. Furthermore, there is no financial malware to date that is trying to exploit this vulnerability."
The financial industry is one of cyber criminals' most common targets. Most recently hackers hit the NASDAQ community forum with a password-stealing cyber raid.