The Register-Guard notes the next time you swipe your credit card at check-out, consider this: It’s a ritual the rest of the world deems outdated and unsafe. The United States is the only developed country still hanging onto credit and debit cards with those black magnetic stripes, the kind you swipe through retail terminals. The rest of the industrialized world has switched – or is in the process of switching – to “smart” chip-based cards. The problem with that black magnetic stripe on the back of your credit card is that it’s about as secure as writing your account information on a postcard. Everything is in the clear and can be copied. Card fraud and the measures taken to prevent it cost U.S. merchants, banks and consumers billions.
Reuters reports South Korean police said they have begun investigating Samsung Card over the alleged leakage of personal information of its customers. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said in a statement on Thursday that a Samsung Card employee was suspected of leaking the personal details of 800,000 customers. Local newspaper, the Chosun Ilbo, quoted a company official as saying that the suspect appeared to have sold the information to illegal spam providers. The incident follows similar customer data breaches including a hacker attack targeting SK Communications in July, and massive network failure at commercial bank Nonghyup in April.
Bank Info Security reports breach notification laws in most states would be preempted if legislation approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday becomes law. But that’s a big if, at least as it now stands. The 10 Democrats and eight Republicans on the committee split along party lines in approving the three different, but related measures, with overlapping provisions, aimed at strengthening privacy protection and nationalizing breach notification.
SC Magazine reports three Seattle men were charged this week with hacking into the networks of more than a dozen businesses to steal online banking credentials and other data used to commit a variety of fraudulent acts. Joshuah Witt, 34, Brad Lowe and John Griffin, both 36, were charged in a 10-count federal indictment that accuses them of conspiracy, damaging computers, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle. Led by Griffin, the trio carried out the fraud from 2008 until 2010, according to prosecutors. During this time, they broke into more than a dozen business networks, and stole credit card numbers that were used to purchase tens of thousands of dollars in equipment and luxury goods.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Portals and Rails blogs that FinCEN has released its final rule on prepaid products, and a key feature expands the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) compliance obligations to include providers and sellers of certain types of prepaid access devices. In March Portals and Rails discussed FinCEN’s proposed rule on prepaid products. The rule was drafted with the intent to address potential money laundering risks in prepaid access devices.
SC Magazine reports cybercrime has affected 431 million adults around the world in the past year and cost $388 billion in monetary and time losses, according to the “2011 Norton Cybercrime Report,” released recently by Symantec. The report, based on interviews with nearly 20,000 individuals from 24 countries, found that 14 adults become victims of cybercrime every second, totaling more than one million victims each day. In the United States alone, digital offenses cost victims more than $139 million in cash costs and lost time over the past year.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Portals and Rails blogs the seemingly inconsequential disclosure of a phone number or ZIP code to a store clerk can ultimately end up far away from where it was first shared, especially if it is used for data mining purposes. Data mining is the use of computer-based analytic tools that sift through large collections of data searching for patterns based on statistical techniques. The information collected and stored in large databases can be used to detect suspicious spending patterns or to uncover improper spending of federal relief funds. Often, the results of the analysis lead to the detection of overall trends or patterns that reveal unusual activity and other specific parameters. While some data mining techniques are used to help with national security, others are in place to help combat financial fraud.
The Association for Financial Professionals notes staying ahead of today’s increasingly insidious cybercrime trends demands that organizations understand the latest threats. The article provides a rundown of the latest trends and developments in cybersecurity, including “Smishing,” “Vishing,” “Trojan Attacks” and “Spear Phishing.” The Association also contends organizations are at increased risk due to the proliferation of mobile and other connected devices across the enterprise, the virtualization of business operations and the demographic shift toward online collaboration and social networking.
Javelin Strategy & Research notes federal law requires banks to inform customers of breaches. 46 states have laws mandating that other companies do the same, and big firms typically contact all customers regardless of residency, says Brian McGinley, senior vice president at Identity Theft 911, which advises businesses on security. While the tone of such letters and e-mails is often reassuring, don’t be lulled into a false sense of security: just 4% of American adults are victims of ID theft, but for those who have been notified of a breach, the incidence jumps to 17%.
The Seattle PI reports federal authorities have nabbed two more men suspected of “skimming” bank card numbers from ATM machines and using them to make fraudulent purchases, including hundreds of dollars in groceries. Ismail Sali, 52, and Eugen Tirca were arrested Wednesday. Skimming is one of the latest big technology trends for crooks. It entails installing an electronic skimming device over the slot where people feed their cards into an ATM machine. Hidden by a plastic faceplate fashioned to look like the ATM, the skimmer can record hundreds of bank numbers from the cards’ magnetic strips, which criminals later use to recode blank cards, known as “white plastic.” Crooks also will install tiny cameras over the keypad to record as customers type their pin numbers. Then, they will use the newly created cards to withdraw cash or make large purchases on the victim’s dime.
