Andrey Zosimov, Virus Analyst

When Hackers are Quicker than Antiviruses. A recent report by FinCERT, a division of the Directorate General for Security and Information Protection of the Bank of Russia, has named the Cobalt group as the top threat for banks and described its attacks as the key trend. Cobalt is currently one of the most active and aggressive criminal groups indeed. According to experts, over the last 12 months, it has carried out at least 50 successful attacks worldwide, constantly testing new tools and changing attack vectors and goals. Apart from contactless attacks on ATMs, Cobalt tries to gain access to SWIFT systems, payment gateways and card processing. In this article we will show why traditional security tools provide no protection against hacker attacks conducted by such groups. And what you can do to protect your business against financial and reputational losses.