Kaspersky Lab: Phishing Risk with New ID Cards?
September 2010 by Kaspersky
In this day and age, protecting your digital identity is becoming increasingly crucial. This applies whether you’re using online banking or accessing social networking sites. The new German personal ID card, which was presented by Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière in June, is designed to link the physical identities of that country’s citizens with their digital ones [1]. The new card, which will come into circulation in November 2010, will contain a chip on which additional information is stored. Holders will be able to use an external reading device to send and receive encrypted data for online transactions. There is, however a problem. According to information provided by the ARD magazine “Plusminus”, sensitive information, such as PIN numbers or bank details, can be intercepted during this process [2].
“Identity theft and the misuse of personal data are current threats against which everyone must protect themselves”, says Marco Preuss, Senior Virus Analyst at Kaspersky Lab. The current home-user solutions, Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 and Kaspersky PURE, for example, use a virtual keyboard to protect users entering passwords. This function guards against phishing attacks while using online banking, doing online shopping or accessing social networking sites.
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[2] http://www.heute.de/ZDFheute/inhalt/18/0,3672,8104562,00.html