SecureWorks Reports Number of Hackers Attacking Banks Up 81% Since Last Year and Up 62% for Credit Unions

ATLANTA, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- SecureWorks, the largest managedinformation security services provider safeguarding 1,800 clients and morefinancial institutions than any other vendor, announced today that thenumber of hackers attempting to attack its banking clients is up 81% sincelast year and hackers attempting to attack its credit union clients is up62% since last year. SecureWorks blocked 167 million hacker attacks in thelast 30 days. "In June 2006 to December of 2006, we were blocking attacks fromapproximately 808 hackers per bank per month," said Allen Wilson, VP ofResearch for SecureWorks. "Since the beginning of 2007 up until June, theaverage number of hackers launching attacks at each of our banks is 1,462.For our credit unions, we were blocking attacks from 1,110 hackers percredit union per month. That number has risen to 1,799 hackers per creditunion per month." "We've seen the number of hackers increase year over year, as more andmore criminals realize the money that can be made and the minimal risk theyface in perpetrating these crimes," said Allen Wilson, VP of Research."Most of the hackers we see stealing financial data are located in Russiaand Eastern Europe, however, we are witnessing a growing number coming outof China. These countries have large numbers of talented young people whoare extremely computer literate. Challenging socioeconomic conditions,combined with a lack of computer crime legislation, makes the allure ofcommitting low- risk, fraud- related crimes against victims on the otherside of the world an appealing choice." "The amount of stolen financial data we have found since the first ofthe year has been daunting," said Don Jackson, security researcher forSecureWorks and discoverer of the Gozi and Prg Trojans. Seehttp://secureworks.com/research/threats/gozitrojan andhttp://secureworks.com/research/threats/prgtrojan/ "With the Gozi, Prg and BBB trojans alone, we found millions of dollarsof data sitting in their stolen repositories," said Jackson. "These datacaches contained thousands of bank account and credit card numbers, socialsecurity numbers, online payment accounts and user names and passwords, andwe are finding new caches of stolen data everyday, evidence that more andmore criminals are getting into the game." About SecureWorks With over 1,800 clients, SecureWorks has become the largest managedsecurity services provider safeguarding more financial institutions thanany other vendor. SecureWorks provides the most effective security servicesby leveraging our integrated security management platform, advancedsecurity research, and 100 percent GIAC certified experts. By providing afull breadth of security services, SecureWorks offers fully-managed,co-managed, monitored or self-service security solutions to meet the needsof Fortune 100 companies with large security teams as well as smallercompanies with no security expertise. In addition, SecureWorks has helpedcompanies pass over 2,400 compliance audits by providing comprehensive andstraight-forward board and examination reports. SecureWorks won SCMagazine's 2007 and 2006 MSSP of the Year award and the 2006 Best IntrusionPrevention award, Frost & Sullivan's 2006 Entrepreneurial Company of theYear award and was named to the Inc 500 and Deloitte & Touche lists offastest-growing companies for the past two years.