media release 21 - trustdefender labs report - final.pdf (179.25 KB)

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Newly launched TrustDefender Labs finds “Online consumers are overwhelmed and made helpless by current online security threats” in its first ‘security industry insight report’

Sydney Australia, Monday September 24, 2007 – Australian online security firm, TrustDefender recently launched TrustDefender Labs, the research arm of the company, which is designed to stay abreast of the current and ‘next’ security issues and threats faced by consumers, enterprises and governments alike and in doing so, ensure the development of the most suitable online security methodology and protection to effectively and efficiently tackle online crime.

TrustDefender Labs today issued the first of its ‘security industry insight’ reports, which explores a number of key issues facing the online community.

The report discusses how, with the advent of social networking sites such as Bebo, Myspace, Facebook and Linkedin, such sites have inadvertently created yet another easy target for identity theft attacks on their members and how easily members’ personal details can be sourced and utilised for criminal intent.

As the report states, ‘The built-in trust network of these sites can be easily exploited. You only need one friend and you’ll be amazed what information you can get. The recent move by all major social networking sites to let the search engines index the site’s user profiles will only make things worse.’

In short, identity Theft is not a result of online fraud - online fraud is the result of identity theft!

It is important to note that everyone has only one date of birth, so the threat of identity theft is set to become bigger and bigger as consumers place more and more private and confidential information on the internet. Initiatives to solve this threat must involve the consumer, as the internet is much bigger than a few bloated web services.

The TrustDefender Labs’ report also presents the results of an internal workshop which concluded that’ today’s most sophisticated malware is just starting to include ‘key intelligence’ capabilities and future Trojans and Rootkits will become even more effective’. However the good news is that quite often even the most advanced rootkits and trojans leave traces which can be detected by forensic analysis.

Also topically explored in the report are the mixed signals that consumers are receiving from financial institutions and government agencies around the world with regard to liability and security for online transactions, as well as moves by local and international governments to implement a Trojan-based surveillance system – supposedly undetectable by the Antivirus Engines. Such systems have been rumoured to have recently been put into place by the US and German governments and are proposed by the Australian Government.

CEO of TrustDefender, Ted Egan said, “Consumers are overwhelmed by the ever increasing security threats. This is why our firm is dedicated to making the online community a safe place, however, it is important to get the message out that security must ensure that consumers’ identities and their confidential information is protected before and during each online transaction, regardless of the computing device being used. This is why we have established TrustDefender Labs.

Egan proceeds, “TrustDefender Labs explores the techniques that are utilised by online criminals to procure confidential information, whilst the Lab ensures our ongoing research and development in the online security space as well as making certain that our products remain leading edge and the most secure in the market. It is imperative that we do everything we can and work together with consumers and online security professionals to stay ahead of the online criminal community”.

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A copy of the TrustDefender Labs ‘security industry insight’ report can be downloaded at http://www.trustdefender.com or to organise an interview with TrustDefender, please contact:

Kerryn Nelson
Big Mouth Marketing Communications Pty Ltd
Managing Director
Big Mouth Marketing Communications P/L
Ph: 03 9558 3122 / 0417 035 536
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About TrustDefender

TrustDefender is an award winning, unique, next generation ‘On Demand Endpoint Security’ company which develops ‘Online Transaction Security’ solutions specifically to meet the needs of the consumer whilst enabling financial institutions, banks, brokers, online merchants and other online businesses to mitigate risk and secure their customers’ online transactions in real-time - using any device, anywhere in the world – to effectively lock out online criminals.

TrustDefender was founded in December 2005 and is based in Sydney, Australia.