Trusteer is a privately held computer security firm responsible for the development of Rapport security software. The company has headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States.
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Trusteer Rapport is lightweight security software designed to protect confidential data, such as account credentials, from being stolen by malicious software (malware) and via phishing. To achieve this goal, the software first includes anti-phishing measures to protect against misdirection. It also locks down the browser and communication, preventing malicious screen scraping. The software is compatible with Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X and can be downloaded free of charge. Financial institutions offer the software free of charge with a view to making online banking safer for customers.[1][2]
Various financial institutions are currently distributing the software to their customers via internet banking services. Banks promoting the software include Bank of America, INGDirect, HSBC, NatWest, The Royal Bank of Scotland, CIBC,[3] Ulster Bank, First Direct, Santander, Standard Bank of South Africa and BMO.[4]
The software is compatible with various browser programs (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari).
In May 2009, NatWest and The Royal Bank of Scotland were the first of the UK's high street banks to offer Rapport to their customers, followed by HSBC in February 2010.[5] American financial institutions offering the software include SunTrust in November 2010,[6] First Republic Bank in San Francisco in February 2011,[7] and Bank of America in March 2011.[8]
Some users have reported problems with Rapport, including high CPU utilisation and difficulty in removing the software.[9] Recently, updates made to Rapport have caused user machines to fail at boot-up with a Blue Screen of Death; the problems are resolved by re-naming the file RapportEI.sys.[10]
In a recent presentation given at 44con, bypassing Trusteer Rapport's keylogger protection was shown to be relatively trivial.[11]