Security and privacy of electronic banking by

Attacks on E-Banking
The Kenyan Prime Bank, Development bank, and CFC Stanbic Bank websites which were 
hacked by Rwandan hacker is one example of how the system is vulnerable to hackers. Hackers 
have many different ways that they can try to break into the system. The problems of the systems 
today are inherent within the setup of the communications and also within the computers itself.
The current focus of security is on session-layer protocols and the flaws in end-to-end 
computing. A secure end-to-end transaction requires a secure protocol to communicate over 
untrusted channels, and a trustee code at both endpoints. It is really important to have a secure 
protocol because the trusted channels really don’t exist in most of the environment.
There are various types of attacks that e-banking can suffer. They include 
1.
 
Social Engineering 
One of the most common attacks does not involve knowledge of any type of computer system. 
Tricking consumer s into revealing sensitive information by posing as a system administrator or 
customer service representative is known as social engineering. Social engineers use surveillance 
and a consumer’s limited knowledge of computer systems to their advantage by collecting 
information that would allow them to access private accounts. 
2.
 
Port Scanners 
Attackers can use port scanners to ascertain entry points into a system and use various techniques 
to steal information. This type of software sends signals to a machine or router and records the 
IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 9, Issue 4, No 3, July 2012 
ISSN (Online): 1694-0814 
www.IJCSI.org
440
Copyright (c) 2012 International Journal of Computer Science Issues. All Rights Reserved.

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message the machine responds with to ascertain information and entry points (Cobb, 2007). The 
main purpose of a port scanner is to gather information related to hardware and software that a 
system is running so that a plan of attack can be developed.