Links in “Cybersecurity/Data Breaches”

ICBA applauds district court decision to grant class-action status to the case against Target, allowing banks with affected customers to seek compensation for costs due to the breach, which forced banks to reissue more than 11.5 million debit and credit cards. At the same time, the group calls for better cybersecurity laws. [9/17/15]

Score one for the financial institutions in their ongoing battle against retail giant Target over its massive data breach in 2013.  A district court judge has certified five financial institutions as a class, which paves the way for their lawsuit to move forward.  The judge further characterized as absurd Target’s argument that since financial institutions are not required by law to reissue cards they therefore did not have to incur reissue expenses. [9/16/15]

A card cracking scam targets almost exclusively college students with the promise of a fast way to make some extra cash. It can end up poorly for the college student, landing them with personal losses and a criminal charge of fraud. [9/15/15]

Results of this poll may surprise you. They did us. [9/14/15]

"Your site is going under attack unless you pay 25 Bitcoin," says the email (25 Bitcoin is approximately $6,000). And the group has followed through with its threats. Financial services firms were targeted in 58% of its threats, with banks and credit unions accounting for 35% of those attacks. [9/10/15]

A wave of fraudulent mobile payment transactions has hit many high-end retailers and banking institutions in Northeastern sections of the U.S. over the past several months. The Secret Service has issued a warning to financial institutions and provided best-practice recommendations to shore up vulnerabilities and help catch identity theft related to mobile payment fraud. [9/9/15]

The U.S. District Court District of Minnesota will consider granting class-action status to financial institution plaintiffs with lawsuits against Target's massive data breach from winter 2013. If the class is certified, financial institutions would be allowed to join their claims against Target and seek damages as a class of plaintiffs, rather than as individuals. [9/9/15]

The Office of Personnel Management and Defense Department have awarded a $133 million contract for identity theft protection and credit monitoring to Identify Theft Guard Solutions LLC. The identify theft protections and credit monitoring services will be offered to data breach victims as a free service for up to three years. Those who were affected will be notified later this month. [9/9/15]

To get around demanding extradition requirements and the secrecy laws of some foreign countries, U.S. law enforcement officials are luring people who help clients establish offshore shell companies to the U.S. by dangling in front of them lucrative opportunities. Two men with a private jet equipped with a safe insisted that the people they were meeting pack their cash in a Louis Vuitton bag because they thought real cops could never afford such an expensive item. [9/9/15]

The number of breaches continues to rise, but the number of compromised records has declined, which suggests the bad guys are busier than ever, but going after smaller-scale targets. [9/9/15]