Poor Bank Website Security Research Leaving Financial Sites Vulnerable to Attacks?

Has your banking website been attacked lately and you never saw anyone report the issue?

Studies this year have reported that vulnerabilities were very common in financial institutions websites including banks but the reports only date from November 2006 to December 2006. In depth research has revealed that some current research data on the vulnerability of financial institutions websites is not very up-to-date or reliable. It was found that several specific areas were banking sites were found to be vulnerable in the year 2006 but what about 2008? From banking login forms to contact information pages, these are all pages that have been attacked in the past but can we really rely on the current data that has reported vulnerabilities in the past?

Where did this “old” research come from?

Researchers at the University of Michigan found that over 75% of bank web sites had at least one design flaw that could lead to consumer’s information being compromised. This is great research but we really cannot trust it now because it was performed back in late 2006. So where are the new reports, where is the new research to help our financial institutions better secure their sites?

The fact remains, there are so many sites and so many attacks that happen each and every day over the internet that it is hard to “keep up”. Researchers within certain organizations do perform up-to-date studies and they do find vulnerabilities within banking sites at times. The thing is, the research that was performed back in 2006 is still helping us today. It is helping us today by running the same automated tests, which may have been updated to today’s standards, to find vulnerabilities within financial institution websites. Reports have confirmed that the automated tests are still valid today and are effective for finding issues or vulnerabilities on banking and financial institution web sites.

How can you check this “current” research data?

You can always check with security vendors on the internet such as Trend Micro or Computer Security Research. Many other antivirus or antispyware vendors provides new updates on discovered vulnerabilities for many types of websites on the internet. It is always a good idea to stay up-to-date and current on security issues to help protect your own interest online.