Protect Your Personal Accounts

Online banking has become a very popular and extremely convenient method in performing all your banking requirements. As with all new advancements and technologies, the many benefits and advantages they provide to the masses will eventually be exploited by those seeking profit. As cyber criminals and hackers have been focusing on personal bank accounts as well as commercial businesses, various government authorities and agencies including the FBI, Homeland Security, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have been more focused on methods of decreasing this practice. Businesses have been forced to examine their own practices of online banking in order to protect their finances. This also forces the banking industry to come up with better security methods in order to protect themselves against online banking fraud.

As attacks against businesses and banking has increased groups including the Electronic Payments Association, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center and security advisory organizations have been proactive in delivering various alerts about the cyber banking threat. There have also been new legislations from the government concerning cyber security and how businesses and organizations can be better protected. Financial losses due to cyber criminals have easily reached hundreds of thousands of dollars per attack. For smaller businesses losses such as this can be very substantial and cripple the business. It also becomes very difficult when banks do not reimburse businesses who have been attacked in this nature.

The activity that is generated by cyber fraud has evolved and become very sophisticated. Whatever theft under ten thousand dollars can be committed, online fraud avoids the usual trigger points and remains under the radar. The malware that is crafted to achieve access to various accounts is coded very well and appears to have arrived from a legitimate and authorized source or computer system. Many times legitimate sessions are hijacked, making it easier to bypass authentication. Once the account has been accessed the funds are transferred to various ‘mules’ who do not realize they have become unwitting participants in financial fraud. Many of these mules are recruited through a job posted on an Internet employment board and do not realize the true intent of the position.

The transfer of finances through electronic means, including the use of clearing houses is a common method to commit fraud. In the past twelve months the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has noticed the number of reports have increased concerning losses due to transfers that are unauthorized, and were performed with compromised business credentials. A study conducted by JP Morgan discovered greater than seventy one percent of banks in various financial organizations suffered fraud in the year 2008. Businesses and organizations with total revenues greater than one billion dollars collectively represent eighty percent. Cash management accounts have also been used to commit fraud, as passwords and user IDs of account owners have been stolen, and unsuspecting customers have been convinced to sign up only to have their IDs and passwords stolen through phishing attacks. Then the usual scam is played, requesting the customer accepts funds into their account, and for a percentage or commission they are directed to transfer the newly received funds to an offshore account. This is where social engineering comes into play, to make the unwitting customers feel as if the offer is real and legitimate. Once the entire scheme has been set up, the cyber criminal enters the cash management account, utilizes the transfer abilities of the account clearing house and takes the money out of the corporate account and places it in the customer account that has been phished. The bank itself is usually unable to recover the stolen money.

As cyber fraud continues to proliferate, information security personnel should be well informed and take the necessary precautions to put a halt to continuing financial losses. If a business wishes to do business with a bank, they should make sure the bank is very proactive and has various fraud protection schemes in place. Inquire at the bank has monitoring systems that can proactively determine if there is any online account that is experiencing suspicious activity. Asked how the bank responds to these threats. Many banks and other institutions have not put in place newer technologies designed to mitigate this threat, and they only possess the usual authentication processes. An overall session of ongoing educational training and tutorials should be administered to various executives and managers. Remaining aware and alert of various cyber threats and procedures that are taking place keeps everyone in the loop. Everyone needs to be educated about the many methods utilized in order to commit cyber fraud.

If possible, only specific systems should be used for online banking activities. These machines and systems should be isolated with their defenses strengthened against any attack from an external nature. These machines should not be used for any type of actions that are not related to online banking, such as e-mails or web browsing. Doing so only creates an opening for cyber criminals to penetrate. Your organization should educate itself and have a firm understanding of the bank's policies in case fraud has been committed. Understanding your rights and how your protected or not protected in the case of fraud or theft can make a large difference in the bank you choose to do business with. This practice is good security risk management, knowing how your business accounts are protected, how incidence of fraud or investigated, and how claims after the fact are assigned. There should be a constant monitoring of accounts in case any funds end up missing or irregularities in the accounts start to occur. A transaction alert on your account is a very good idea as you will become automatically notified of suspicious activities. Various blocks can be placed on transactions to prevent them from going through if they have not been authorized.

As always your firewalls and antivirus and anti-malware solutions should be up-to-date, especially in various departments that handle your finances. If your accounts have been attacked, it is possible your bank will make assumptions the compromise has occurred on your end. Be prepared.

Financial institutions should have various fraud prevention schemes on the back end of their systems that monitor customer behavior. Any activity that falls out of the realm of normal customer processes has the possibility of being flagged as a compromise. All security defenses should be strengthened and everyone in the financial organization should be up to date and educated on the various ways a threat to be administered.

There are many more areas that can be discussed that are deeply and inherently involved in information security. CISSP CBT training contains many different areas that are part of an overall cyber defense. The K Alliance training and certification training in the field of information security contains these different pieces and should be part of every institution's training requirement and ongoing education.

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