A specific strain of 'Phishing Trojans' is capable of remaining latent, silently listening to the browser communication and 'waking up' only when the user visits a specific target website. The Trojan then takes control of the browser and a carefully crafted webpage with tailored text boxes overlays the original webpage and sends the sensitive credentials to its masters. During this time, the browser maintains its connection with the original website, so even when a secure SSL session is in place and the familiar SSL sign appears, there is no guarantee that information can't be grabbed by a stealthy Trojan.

Cy bercriminals are also keeping up with the latest consumer trends to employ the most effective social engineering techniques. As today's online shoppers are spending more time hunting for discounts and special offers, cybercriminal s are taking advantage of this trend by drawing more victims to their infected web pages. They do so by infecting websites that advertise discounted products or that advertise special offers with the malicious ad compromising the visitor's PC. Another way to draw visitors is through spam linked to malicious pages promoting popular shopping list items at special discounts. More sophisticated cybercriminals use search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to craft infected webpages that are ranked high when shoppers search for popular items or for special offers. These webpages may be hosted on compromised legitimate websites, Web 2.0 sites or dedicated malware sites.

Several precautions are recommended to protect employee and corporate data:

• Awareness is the first factor—employees need to be made aware of the way cybercriminals think and be on alert when shopping for discounted or popular items.
• They should be especially careful when entering their credentials, regardless of the reputation of the website or the shown SSL sign.
• Downloadable browser plug-in tools can be used to alert consumers what websites might be infected with malware by giving a designation.
• Corporate IT staff needs to make sure all known vulnerabilities are patched and web security measures are in place, ideally by deploying a secure web gateway that utilizes active real-time code inspection.

With the online holiday shopping season just gearing up, businesses need to make sure they are well protected against today's cybercriminals so they don't enter the New Year as victims of data theft.

Ophir Shalitin is the marketing director at Finjan, a global provider of web security solutions for the enterprise market. Finjan's Malicious Code Research Center (MCRC) is dedicated to the research and detection of security vulnerabilities in Internet applications, as well as other popular programs.