Cyota Online Fraud Survey: 50% of Accountholders Have Received Phishing Emails; Over 40% of Online Bankers Share Passwords between Banks.

NEW YORK -- Cyota Announces Key Findings from Its Second Annual Financial Institution Online Fraud Survey

Cyota, the leading provider of anti-fraud solutions for financial institutions, today announced some of the key findings from its second annual Financial Institution Online Fraud Survey, conducted in November 2004. Cyota conducted a similar survey in April last year. The online survey, representative of the online U.S. adult population with a bank account, focused on online security, email fraud, AKA phishing, and consumers' response to the growing trend.

Key results found in the survey include:

--50% of accountholders have received at least one phishing email, compared to less than 25% back in April - representing 100% growth in just six months.

--44% of online bankers utilize the same password for multiple online banking services - a password obtained by the fraudsters can be used at a number of banks.

--37% of online bankers use their online banking password at other, less secure sites - these sites are typically less protected and this poses a security risk for banks.

--79% of accountholders check for the little lock on the bottom of a secure web page, however less than 40% actually click on the lock to view the security certificate. Cyota's Anti-Fraud Command Center (AFCC) confirms: lock image can be and is easily spoofed by fraudsters.

--70% of accountholders are less likely to respond to an email from their bank, and more than half are less likely to sign-up or continue to use their bank's online services due to phishing.

Twice as many accountholders received phishing emails in the last six months.

Cyota's AFCC, which tracks phishing and online fraud, has recorded a constant growth of approximately 30% every month for the past six months. In accordance with what the AFCC has seen, Cyota's survey shows that the number of accountholders that have received phishing emails has multiplied from 25% to 50%, in just six months. Over 40% of accountholders have seen an increase in the amount of phishing emails they received in the past few months; and almost 5% admitted to responding and divulging information.

Online banking passwords become less secure due to user behavior.

According to Cyota's survey, 44% of online bankers utilize the same password for all of their online banking services - over 30% of online bankers use 3 or more online banking services. This allows the fraudster gangs to leverage information stolen from one bank's accountholders for conducting fraud at additional banks as well, thus exploiting these 'shared' online banking passwords.

11% of online bankers save their passwords in their computer, and many - 37% - share their secret password with other less protected services, such as online merchants and subscriptions, which weakens the passwords even further.

Accountholders are concerned; phishing reduces their trust in the online channels.

Cyota's survey indicates that accountholders' concern may result in actions or non-actions that will affect the online environment as a viable channel all-together. Over 70% responded that they are less likely to respond to an email from their bank. Similar concern (75%) was expressed in Cyota's April survey. In addition, more than half stated that they were less likely to sign-up or continue to use their bank's online services because of phishing.

"The survey reaffirms several of the trends that our Anti-Fraud Command Center has tracked and identified," said Amir Orad, Cyota Executive Vice President of Marketing, "Cyota provides financial institutions with solutions to fight fraud and secure their accountholders - we strongly believe that banks must play an active role and are pleased to see more and more institutions taking proactive measures against phishing and fraud; we encourage the entire industry to follow suit."

Cyota's survey, which was conducted with Infosurv, an online market research company, included 655 responses. The survey has a statistical accuracy of +/- 3.84% at the 95% confidence level.

Cyota offers financial institutions an array of anti-fraud solutions, including the company's end-to-end anti-phishing service - FraudAction. FraudAction includes real-time alerts, detailed severity assessments, site shutdown services, forensic work and proprietary counter-measures. Today FraudAction is live and in use by several top North American and European banks.

About Cyota

Cyota is the leading provider of security and anti-fraud solutions for financial institutions. Cyota's solutions include fraud reduction tools for e-commerce and online banking as well as anti-phishing services. Cyota operates in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific with systems in use by over 10,000 global financial institutions, including eight of the world's top ten banks. Over 400 million accountholders are protected by Cyota's systems. Founded in 1999, Cyota is headquartered in New York with offices worldwide. For more information please visit www.cyota.com