Faulty security software could have jeopardized RBS customers

• The Royal Bank of Scotland had provided its business banking customers a security software free of cost.
• It was speculated that around 50,000 people were using the software.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) customers could have been a victim to a massive cyber-attack thanks to a flawed security product. According to BBC News, the bank had offered its customers a product known as Thor Foresight Enterprise to protect them from cyber attacks.

Thor Foresight Enterprise is an endpoint security platform created by Danish security firm Heimdal Security. As of now, the faulty software has been patched.

Worth noting

• Thor Foresight Enterprise was offered to RBS banking customers since January this year.
• As stated by Heimdal Security, around 50,000 customers were found using this security product.
• The unnamed flaw could have permitted attackers to access computers and then have complete control of the device. In addition, they could snoop into the victim’s email, internet history, and bank details.
• The firm immediately fixed the issue after security researchers disclosed the flaw.

Fixed in four days time

Morten Kjaersgaard, CEO of Heimdal Security mentioned that the issue was remediated in a week in Thor-installed systems. “We naturally treat information like this very seriously. We issued a fix and automatically updated 97% of all affected endpoints within four days of being informed, and the rest shortly after,” he told BBC News.

On the other hand, the RBS group tells that only its Natwest customers were affected by the issue as the software was not provided to customers of its subsidiaries such as Ulster Bank and others.