Problem, what problem?

It’s amazing. Zeus malware is now affecting 60,000–100,000 unique Windows computers a month, according to Microsoft. But more amazing – at least to me – is how many people aren’t aware of the problem.

Speaking about payments security at a recent event, I was struck by the fact that many company executives in the audience were unaware of the sheer scale and sophistication of financial fraud. If you have been involved in the anti-fraud world for some time, cases like Zeus malware are well known – the discussion is all about the latest fraud vectors and the necessary mitigating factors to defeat them.

But perhaps we are going too fast. The anti-fraud software industry has to educate potential corporate buyers about the scale and impact of real-world examples like Zeus, and its mobile derivative Zitmo, as a first fundamental step to solution take-up. As in any industry, if you don’t realise the existence of a problem, you aren’t going to implement a solution.

A key component is education and awareness, best served by taking the debate to the wider media, and showing the customers of financial services companies that there is problem, as well as a solution. When customers begin to ask, say, their current account provider about  online security, the battle to educate providers about the problem will be half won. Then we can get on with implementing solutions to fix it.