Links in “Cybersecurity/Data Breaches”

You're not alone. A recent poll of security professionals found that 52% believed their organization will likely be successfully hacked in the next 12 months, compared to 39% in 2013. [3/17/15]

Touted as the next big thing when it was introduced six months ago, Apply Pay now has its fair share of detractors, including banks, who are complaining about its high fraud rates. But the banks may largely have themselves to blame. [3/17/15]

Imagine a breed of malware that infects files on a device, modifies registries to obfuscate itself, replicates itself into other files on the device, then locks the screen and disables the compromised system. So far, this kind of ransomware has been directed largely at gamers. But small businesses and governments have reason to be concerned about the trend. [3/16/15]

NCUA Chair Debbie Matz says that her greatest concern, and what keeps her awake at night, is the scenario where a cyber hacker sneaks in through a credit union vendor to wreak havoc on the industry.  Although, there has been no situation in which this actually occurred, Matz claims that the warning flags are there and the agency needs more authority to protect credit unions from this threat. [3/10/15]

The Wall Street Journal reports that fraudsters are entering stolen credit and debit card numbers and making fraudulent transactions using Apple Pay at an alarming rate. Estimates are that 6% of Apple Pay transactions are fraudulent while only .01%  of typical debit and credit cards are fraudulent. [3/9/15]

Malware that infected point-of-sales systems at most, if not all, US locations and some international locations has resulted in a breach of the card data at Mandarin Oriental hotels. Industry sources state that the breach likely dates back to December, 2014. [3/6/15]

A Senate bill to make it easier for companies to share data about cyber threats with the government has stalled amid concerns that it could also be used as a "backdoor for surveillance." [3/6/15]

Criminals are linking their devices to victims' payment card accounts, then racking up in-person purchases charged to the victims' accounts. But it isn't Apple's fault, say some experts. The weak link is bank processes for identity-proofing. [3/5/15]

This is probably every credit union’s nightmare. A laptop that potentially contains member information is lost. This is the situation in which Piedmont Advantage Credit Union finds itself and it has notified its 46,000 members that member names, addresses, dates of birth, account numbers and social security numbers may have been on the laptop. [3/4/15]

With all the data breaches, consumers are left to play the waiting game to find out what the criminals will do with their data. A recent study finds that individuals whose card data was breached were three times more likely to become victims of identity fraud. [3/4/15]