Links in “Cybersecurity/Data Breaches”

Reports of potentially the largest breach ever are emerging that a Russian crime ring has stolen 1.2 billion password and username combinations and more than 500 million email addresses. [8/7/14]

The Internet Crime Complaint Center has issued a warning about a new fraud that involves hacking into the email account of an executive and then issuing emails to company employees requesting them to take certain actions such as transferring funds. Knowing that most employees will respond promptly to an executive’s request, the Center noted in its IC3 notice that the average loss from these fraudulent actions is $55,000. [8/4/14]

Many trade groups join together to lend support to CISA, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, legislation designed to promote prompt information sharing on cyber threats between businesses and the government. [8/1/14]

Distributed denial of service attacks are getting bigger, more sophisticated and harder to detect according to leading technology providers. Many attackers are now using “amplification” techniques that attack multiple servers with a communication that appears to come from a victim’s IP address and the response back is often thousands of times larger than the original message, causing huge disruptions. [7/30/14]

Thought your home banking site was secure because you use two-factor authentication? Think again. 34 financial institutions in four different countries have had their systems compromised by a new threat dubbed “Emmenta.”  No US institutions have yet been the subject of a similar attack, but given the fact that the countries involved used a more sophisticated authentication process than is generally used here, it may just be a matter of time. [7/29/14]

GOZeuS and Cryptolocker malware enable cyber criminals to access bank login credentials, which they have used to steal millions over the last few weeks. Banks in the U.S. are not immune. [7/28/14]

Survey finds that 58% of consumers believe banks do a better job of safeguarding data than retailers, governments, or law enforcement agencies. [7/25/14]

Survey finds that 44% of consumers don't recall receiving any guidance or tips from their banks fraud protection measures. [7/22/14]

Weak passwords, typically from bank employees who use easy-to-guess passwords, is still the top security threat for banks. Here's a rundown of the top three security threats and what to do about them. [7/21/14]

According to a recent GAO study, the FDIC has not fully implemented controls regarding its information security management program. Four action items have been recommended by the GOA to help the FDIC enhance its program. [7/18/14]