Symantec has announced the availability of Symantec Online Fraud Protection, a comprehensive program that includes Symantec services, education and ongoing monitoring and management capabilities designed to protect businesses that conduct large volumes of financial transactions and their customers from losses due to online fraud. This offering will help businesses shield their customers from a variety of online threats, including phishing and pharming. By helping their customers safely conduct transactions online, businesses can boost customer loyalty, minimise financial loss and legal exposure, and reduce risks to their corporate brand.

Leveraging Symantec's broad footprint as a leader in security, Symantec Online Fraud Protection is a flexible program that combines a variety of offerings based on customer need. This offering is also backed by Symantec’s Global Intelligence Network, which provides a comprehensive view of Internet attack activity, based on security intelligence data gathered from around the world.

Symantec Online Fraud Protection includes functionalities like phishing monitoring, transaction monitoring, online fraud incident response and countermeasures, malware intelligence and analysis, consumer education and protection and an expert resident to serve as a point-of-contact and co-ordinate with in-house staff.

"Symantec's recent Internet Security Threat Report (April 2008) shows that 80 percent of brands targeted by phishing attacks were in the financial sector," said Anil Chakravarthy, senior vice president, worldwide, Enterprise Services, Symantec. "As online fraud continues to increase, Symantec is arming its customers with tools to protect against the brand erosion that can result from an attack. With Symantec’s malware intelligence and analysis, monitoring and incident response services, customers can quickly respond to online fraud attacks, leverage expert command and control during incidents, and shift their approach to online fraud from reactive to proactive."