Banks face a bigger risk than robbery in high-tech heists

by Claude Solnik - Long Island Business News
Published: April 1, 2009


Bank customers know that if their ATM card is stolen, thieves could sneak money out of their accounts. But millions of dollars? In at least one case, bank robbers committed a massive global bank robbery with counterfeit ATM cards.

Last December RBS WorldPay, a payment processor, announced that as many as 1.5 million accounts had been compromised by thieves. But the robbers didn’t wreak havoc with everyone. They didn’t need to.

Hackers who hit RBS’s database, exposing a vast number of accounts to potential havoc, only copied about 100 cards. But it was enough to do a lot of damage.

They raised withdrawal limits and otherwise altered codes so they could make $500 withdrawals in cities ranging from New York to Moscow and Hong Kong. By the time they were done, they had siphoned off $9 million in one day.

Long arm of the unlawful

RBS is the most recent case of bank robbery with a twist, but only one example of how banks’ reliance on technology in an interconnected world can put them at risk around the globe.

Tom Field, editorial director of Information Security Media Group, which operates bankinfosecurity.com and cuinformationsecurity.com said robberies affecting U.S. banking customers now goes far beyond U.S. borders.

“This is an international issue,” Field said, citing ability to access networks worldwide. “For hackers are everywhere, they’re insiders, customers themselves.”

Field cited data vulnerability as a key concern, but the biggest threat to bank data today may not be within banks themselves. Field said it may be exposure to hackers breaching credit and debit card processors.

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