HSBC deluged by thousands of daily virus attacks

Leading high-street bank HSBC has admitted it is deluged by virus attacks and often detects tens of thousands of viruses a day.

The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) claims companies receive an average of seven viruses a day but, speaking at the e-Crime Congress in London, HSBC's group COO Alan Jebson said that the bank was often receiving tens of thousands times that figure.

Jebson said: "I was interested to hear it was seven attacks a day. On our worst day last year we had 100,000 attacks."

HSBC holds over a trillion dollars in assets, which makes it a tempting target for virus writers and hackers. But email identity theft scams are posing a greater threat to the bank's 18.9m online customers, Jebson said.

"We are naturally very concerned about anything that would damage online banking. Customers will only do business online if they are convinced it is secure. Customers are no longer sure whether emails from financial institutions are genuine," he said.

Jebson said online fraud is damaging consumer confidence, with research showing that take-up of ecommerce is slowing.

Banks and customers need to co-operate in their efforts to thwart scammers, according to Jebson, and he said HSBC is co-operating with the likes of Citibank to share information on security, and the bank is even considering the use of biometrics in three-factor authentication - where a user would need to supply three different pieces of information proving their identity.

"The harder we make it for criminals to access accounts, the harder we make it for the public. But this is a game we cannot afford to lose," said Jebson.

Dan Ilett writes for ZDNet UK