London, UK 29th September 2010 - Trusteer, the leading provider of secure browsing services, announced today that Santander one of the UK’s largest banks will offer all its online retail banking customers the Rapport complimentary web browser security service from Trusteer.  Trusteer prevents online fraud by protecting web communication against financial malware and phishing attacks.

“The rollout of Trusteer Secure Browsing Service to the UK retail banking customers of Santander is one of the largest free offers of online banking security by a UK bank,” said Mick Paisley, Head of Information Security and Business Resilience for Santander. “I strongly encourage customers download the Trusteer software from the Santander website and use it to make sure that their online banking session is more secure.”

 

“We are seeing the level of attacks by cybercriminals broadly increasing both in terms of volume and sophistication. Taking precautions can have a disproportional protective effect, customers don’t have to do much to significantly increase their levels of protection, and Trusteer is one of those things which provide a significant benefit with minimal effort,” he said.

Rapport from Trusteer has been rolled out to a large number of customers at Alliance and Leicester, and it has been very successful in protecting online banking. This is the main reason we’re now expanding the service to all Santander customers in the UK. Having desktop antivirus or antispyware is not enough and you should still download Trusteer to protect your online banking communication. Trusteer works directly with leading banks in the UK and around the world to identify targeted online banking attacks, block them, and remove them from your computer. The unique technology and the incorporation of knowledge gathered directly from the banks is what makes this solution so effective in preventing fraud.

“The Trusteer network includes more than 70 banks and covers more than 12 million customers,” said Mickey Boodaei, CEO of Trusteer. “Santander’s contribution to this network is extremely valuable due to its vast experience in fighting online fraud and protecting millions of customers. While most users have desktop protection of some sort, they still don’t have good protection against online banking threats. These threats are highly targeted and highly sophisticated and fly under the radar of traditional desktop security solutions. Trusteer is entirely focused on working with the banks to identify and eliminate these threats through an array of services.”

How Trusteer Secure Browsing Service Works

The Trusteer Secure Browsing Service protects banking sessions by blocking and then disinfecting machines contaminated with high risk financial malware.

Trusteer  prevents criminals from tampering with website communications and transactions, and protects against man-in-the-browser, man-in-the-middle, and phishing attacks. When a Trusteer user browses to sensitive websites such as internet banking, Webmail, or online payment pages, the service immediately locks down the browser and creates a tunnel for safe communication with the web site. This prevents malware from injecting data and stealing information entered and presented in the browser. Trusteer also removes malicious code it discovers on protected machines. The service is directly connected to the bank and to a 24x7 fraud analysis service. Attempts to steal money from customers are immediately detected by the bank and are blocked using various layers of protection.

About Santander

Banco Santander (SAN.MC, STD.N, BNC.LN) is a retail and commercial bank, based in Spain, with presence in 10 main markets. At the end of 2009, Santander was the largest bank in the euro zone by market capitalization and fourth in the world by profit. Founded in 1857, Santander had EUR 1,245 billion in managed funds at the end of 2009. Following the acquisition of Sovereign Bancorp. of the U.S. in January 2009, Santander has 90 million customers, 13,660 branches – more than any other international bank – and 170,000 employees. It is the largest financial group in Spain and Latin America, with leading positions in the United Kingdom and Portugal and a broad presence in Europe through its Santander Consumer Finance arm. In 2009, Santander registered €8,943 million in net attributable profit.

 

In the UK, Santander operates two retail businesses – Santander, which was formed out of the Abbey and Bradford & Bingley retail network, and Alliance & Leicester. Together they have over 1300 branches, around 4,500 cash machines and they provide a full range of retail and corporate banking services to 25 million customers.

 

Alliance & Leicester will become known as Santander by the end of 2010. 

 

About Trusteer

Trusteer, the world’s leading provider of secure browsing services, helps prevent financial malware attacks through its array of services. Trusteer enables banks and online businesses to protect sensitive data such as account holder credentials from malware by locking down the browser and creating a tunnel for safe communication between the web site and customers’ machines, and prevents phishing by validating site authenticity. Trusteer also allows remote, effective, and instant investigation of malware-related fraud incidents. Trusteer’s solutions are used by more than 70 leading financial organizations in North America and Europe and by more than 12 million of their customers. Trusteer is a privately held corporation led by former executives from RSA Security, Imperva, and Juniper. Follow us on www.Twitter.com/Trusteer. For more information about our products and services, please visit www.trusteer.com.

 

 

ENDS

 

Editorial Contacts:

 

Trusteer

 

Neil Stinchcombe

Tel: +44 20 71 832 833

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Marc Gendron

Tel:+1 781 237-0341

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Santander

 

Andy Smith, Head of Media Relations, Santander UK

Tel: +44 207 756 4212

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Nicola Hussey, Senior Media Relations Manager, Santander UK

Tel: +44 207 756 4209

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