Internet banking: a hacker's ideal target

Like Swiss Emmental cheese, the ways your online banking accounts are protected might be full of holes.

According to internet security software developer Kaspersky, the number of cyberthreats reached record levels in 2014. One in three computers or mobile devices were subjected to at least one web attack over the year.

Particular targets are companies or individuals using internet banking.

In January, a Swiss firm lost an estimated one million euros in an online financial transaction that was hacked.

The victim, an accountant at the company, was unaware of what was going on.

It started when he opened an email containing an attachment infected with a virus. Once they had taken control of his computer, all the hackers had to do was wait for him to connect online with his bank.

“When he tried to connect to his bank online, he activated the “Trojan horse”. A message appeared asking him to hold. For 20 or 30 minutes, he wasn’t able to use his computer at all. During that ti