The War on Fraud... Europe's Elite Banks, Entrust Collaborate to Combat Escalating Cybercrime in Economic Decline

Global banks seek non-invasive, real-time fraud detection solutions to protect brand image, secure customers and reduce fraud losses

DALLAS, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Global banks and financial institutions are bracing for the increase in cybercrime and online fraud that accompanies an economic downturn and merger activity. Noted by leading analysts during a recent customer event, the spike in attacks has already begun and will climb significantly in 2009.

"Effective fraud detection will always be necessary for companies whose financial accounts are vulnerable to attack. Expect fraud attacks to increase in the deteriorated economic environment," said Gartner analyst Avivah Litan in the firm's November 2008 report, "Impact of Financial Crisis on Fraud Prevention Markets."

In response, Entrust, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENTU) , hosted a dedicated Fraud Forum in London with Europe's top financial institutions to jointly explore fraud prevention strategies. Confirmed by leading analyst groups, organizations need to consider fraud detection, multifactor authentication and other security systems to prevent further fraud losses.

Fraud Forum Highlights:

• Financial institutions dedicating more resources to protecting brand reputation from fraud loss
• Banks, FIs are evolving online fraud prevention strategies to be able to quickly respond to ever-changing threat landscape
• Demand for multichannel (e.g., call centers, IVR, ATM) fraud detection solutions on the rise
• Organizations are disappointed in the lack of non-invasive, real-time fraud detection solutions
• Increase in criminal organizations leveraging social engineering tactics for malware deployment

"This unique, peer-to-peer forum represented an important opportunity to collaborate with leading financial institutions and really uncover their primary concerns," said Entrust's Terry Schoen, vice president of fraud detection and risk-based authentication solutions. "Banks understand that the plug-it-in-and-forget approach to fraud detection doesn't work in the always-changing online world. They must continually monitor the threat landscape and be proactive with online fraud-prevention strategies."

Based on feedback from the London Fraud Forum, these organizations understandably place a premium on protecting their reputation and brand image. Financial institutions are increasingly focused on evolving strategies that protect online channels from fraud, but also identified the need to leverage a system that could transcend multiple channels, such as call centers, interactive voice response-based (IVR) systems and ATMs.

The newest attacks, including evolved phishing and man-in-the-browser techniques, use sophisticated social engineering tactics to install malware on end-user computers. The most proven method to help stop online fraud attacks is the use of a comprehensive fraud detection and strong authentication solution.

Attending financial institutions agreed that platforms that have a wide range of authenticators and can lower the total cost of ownership -- particularly with zero-touch fraud detection capabilities -- are preferable.

While the organizations in attendance all agreed that real-time fraud detection was one of the major priorities, they also identified a number of other security requirements during the event. These include the rapid deployment of new detection measures, highlighting the need for both rule and statistical approaches; ability to purchase an off-the-shelf solution; non-intrusive deployment across any number of applications; mistake-free, trustworthy fraud detection; and the ability to implement new functionality in a quick, efficient manner.

Components of an affordable, comprehensive fraud prevention platform, Entrust provides zero-touch fraud detection, multifactor authentication and EV SSL digital certificates for banks and financial institutions.

Entrust currently secures many of the world's elite brands with its fraud detection and multifactor authentication offerings, including DnB Nor, Expedia, Commercebank, Bank of New Zealand, Banco Santander Santiago, Goteborg University, Ministry of Economic Development of New Zealand, SCHUFA, Arbetsformedligen, Alaska Law Enforcement Information Sharing System, Vejle Amt, Aristex, Swedish National Labor Market Administration, Skanska and more.

Entrust's fraud detection and strong authentication platform includes Entrust IdentityGuard and Entrust Authority PKI for the widest range of proven authentication capabilities on the market today; Entrust TransactionGuard for real-time zero-touch fraud detection; and the Open Fraud Intelligence Network for fraud data sharing.

As a part of a layered security strategy, Entrust also delivers EV SSL certificates that, in conjunction with newer browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox 3, enable users to easily recognize they are on a valid or fraudulent site via a green-colored address bar.

More information about Entrust's fraud detection and strong authentication solution can be found by visiting http://www.entrust.com/consumer-authentication.

About Entrust

Entrust [NASDAQ: ENTU] secures digital identities and information for consumers, enterprises and governments in 2,000 organizations spanning 60 countries. Leveraging a layered security approach to address growing risks, Entrust solutions help secure the most common digital identity and information protection pain points in an organization. These include SSL, authentication, fraud detection, shared data protection and e-mail security. For information, call 888-690-2424, e-mail entrust@entrust.com or visit www.entrust.com.

Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. In Canada, Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust Limited. All Entrust product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Entrust, Inc. or Entrust Limited. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.