"That's not enough," he says. "To combat the level of sophistication poised by Trojan malware, the bank also needs to verify the action that the customer is trying to perform, whether it's a purchase, a transfer or a change of address."

Cronto's aim was to produce a solution that was easy to use for millions of customers, but robust enough to meet the security challenges faced by banks. Dr Punskaya, a specialist in advanced machine learning algorithms and statistical data analysis, developed a new unique visual symbology optimised for secure, fast and reliable data transfer.

The 2D barcode which the team developed allows the bank to securely transfer a message of over 100 characters that is decoded by the company's application or hardware device in fractions of a second. The specific features of the image have been developed by testing machine learning algorithms on large datasets of images captured in different conditions.

Using the application or hardware device, the customer scans the image. Providing the security conditions are met, the customer will see the message from their bank, which is typically asking them to confirm the action they are attempting to perform, highlighting any aspects of the transaction which are out of the ordinary. To confirm the transaction, the customer simply uses a six-digit code, generated by the app or device, and enters it into their browser. The code acts as the customer's signature for this specific instruction, and once received and validated by the bank, completes the transaction.

The technology can be used in any environment and is highly adaptable, as it gives the banks the ability to change the message they wish their customers to see, whether in response to an emerging security threat, or simply to allow the customer to perform a different type of transaction.

Dr Steven Murdoch, a member of the Security Group at the University Computer Laboratory and Cronto's Chief Security Architect, designed and developed a new transaction signing solution able to withstand both attacks from criminals and the reality of industry.

Working together with banks, in particular Germany's Commerzbank, Dr Murdoch and the Cronto team implemented a state-of-the-art security protocol that has been adopted by leading banks in Germany and Switzerland, having successfully passed their internal and external security evaluations.

While Cronto is currently focused on the online banking sector, the team also sees commercial possibilities for their technology in e-commerce, peer-to-peer online payments, or any other application where there is a need to create a trusted connection between two parties.