Hackers Turn Their Attention to Online Brokerages

High-Profile Losses Accentuate the Need for Arcot Strong Authentication to Combat Identity Hijacking

Sunnyvale, California -- November 8, 2006 — Identity thieves are now targeting online brokerages with their sophisticated attacks, in addition to online banks. In July of this year, Man-in-the Middle attacks defeated security measures once thought to be secure and caused financial institutions to rethink how to protect their online banking customers against these new internet attacks. Last month, hackers broke into customer accounts at large online brokerages in the United States and made unauthorized trades worth millions of dollars. These scams typically start with a hacker gaining access to username and password information through phishing and key stroke logging attacks. With the increase in consumer use of the internet for personal finance, how can Financial Institutions stay ahead of the hackers? In these and other cases, hackers were able to bypass multiple layers of security and gain access to their accounts.

These attacks accentuate the need for all financial institutions, not just those regulated by FFIEC guidelines, to adopt a strong authentication solution to reduce online identity theft and fraud, enhance customer trust and protect their assets.

To protect against these sophisticated attacks, financial institutions need an authentication solution that ensures the identity of both the user and the site on to which they are logging. This solution must prevent phishing, man-in-the-middle, keystroke logger and other internet attacks while providing a simple authentication experience for their customers, employees, and partners.

Arcot Systems offers the only multi-factor software authentication solution that prevents phishing, man-in-the middle, keystroke logging, trojans and other internet threats. Arcot provides multiple layers of protection -- authentication risk management, strong, two-factor authentication and digital signing capabilities -- using standard PKI technology.

The company's offerings are compliant with U.S. and international standards including 3-D Secure, IdenTrust, SAFE and FFIEC Internet Banking Authentication recommendations. Its unique technology currently protects over 20 million online users.

To learn more about the Arcot solutions visit the Arcot Systems website at www.arcot.com.