South Korean antivirus software company Hauri expects 133% growth in regional sales to US$3.5mn in 2005 and plans to secure an average of 12.5% of Latin America's corporate sector clients (excluding Brazil) this year, Hauri's Latin America president Carlos Lang told BNamericas.

In its first year of operations in 2004 the company saw sales of US1.5mn, Lang said. Hauri currently has 7.05% of the corporate antivirus market in Mexico, its regional headquarters. Mexico should account for US$2.5mn of the US$3.5mn sales estimate for 2005.

According to Lang, Hauri is the regional leader in antivirus software specifically designed for banks and in Mexico now has 38% of the corporate bank market after sealing last week a deal with Banamex.

Another major bank client in the region is Chile's Banco de Credito (BCI) and Hauri hopes to have deals with six Latin American banks this year. In Mexico the company is aiming to have 80% of the banking market as clients in 2005.

Hauri offers software that attacks the problems of phishing and Trojans, used to obtain bank account passwords from unwary bank customers to then make transfers from their bank accounts to other accounts.

The problem has become huge and Latin American banks are desperately seeking solutions, according to Lang.

"The demand will be explosive in 2005. We have been offering our products since 2004 and banks did not pay attention. The problem has got so big now that banks are desperately looking for alternatives," he said.

Lang claims that Huari's solution is the only one directed exclusively at banks rather than at the customer. The application is activated when the client enters the bank site, protecting him from spyware.

According to Lang, US research firm Gartner has found that in the last six months in the US, customers have lost US$2.5bn through phishing and Trojan attacks and in 2004 Brazilian banking clients lost US$66mn.

TROJANS AND PHISHING

Phishing is one of two main methods used to obtain passwords. Hackers send emails to clients posing as their bank and requesting confirmation of their bank details and passwords for one reason or another. The client is then directed to a website identical to that of the real bank site, where the details are recorded.

In the case of Trojans, a spyware program is installed on the users' PC and registers the passwords often with a "key stroke logger" that recognizes the keys typed.

According to Lang, Hauri is developing applications for virtual keyboards that prevent the keyboards from being recognized by Trojans.

Latin America, particularly Brazil, and Korea are among the top countries for creating professional hackers, meaning banking clients are extremely vulnerable in those countries, Lang says.

Patrick Nixon
BNamericas.com