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Credit, debit and data security horror stories like these hit the news every day.
A Colorado bank has come forward to reveal that as many as 5,000 of its customers were at risk because of new fraudulent transactions tied to the Heartland Payment Systems data breach.
First National Bank of Durango, a $399 million institution, went public with the news on March 1, after several customers reported that their debit cards had fraudulent transactions on them.
Many people pay little attention to sensational stories like these because they believe that data breaches, hacking, phishing and other cybercrimes only affect large financial institutions or big corporations. After all, thieves go after the big pay-off, they hit the targets with large enough resources to make the risk and labor expended hacking them worth the effort.
That might seem logical at first, but it's dead wrong. The richest targets also have the most robust security. Instead, cybercrime trends point to hackers targeting individuals and small businesses, who are less likely to have secure systems protecting their electronic assests.
Among the most common credit/debit card schemes:
Foreign Fraud
Overseas criminals operating outside of US law enforcement jurisdiction continue to hit US consumers with a variety of scams. "Foreign fraud continues to be a huge issue for credit card users," says Alan Nevels, Senior Vice President of Operations and Card Risk for ICBA Bancard, the electronic payments services subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA). "This is mostly due to phishing and vishing attempts by criminals." Offshore fraudsters' success owes to "packet sniffing" (Trojans that capture authorization traffic between the merchant and authentication processing server) and Pin Entry Device tampering.
Spear Phishing, where criminals access small amounts of personal data from several related servers to construct a more direct individual communication that seems very authentic to the consumer. Security vendor Verisign recently revealed a study showing more than 15,000 individuals have been spear phished in the last 15 months.
Counterfeit Fraud, "particularly skimmed counterfeit fraud." This is the top fraud reported for both debit and credit cards.
“To protect our customers, we have temporarily blocked all point of sale purchases. Debit cards will still work at the ATM. It is important to note that there was not a security breach at First National Bank of Durango, our systems remain secure. The breach occurred at a third party processor.”
• Do you use gas or store credit cards, especially those with keyring attachments or other "easy-to-use" gimmicks?
• Do you use your computer to access your bank, stocks and bonds brokerage account or other financial accounts?
• Do you keep personal identity, security or financial information on your computer?
• Do you sometimes fail to use strong passwords on important accounts?
• Do you secure these passwords where they might be accessed by hackers?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you may very well be vulnerable to cybercriminals.
Common sense tips for securing your personal computer and online transactions can go a long way toward protecting you and your family's security, but what about "Offshore fraudsters' 'packet sniffing' (Trojans that capture authorization traffic between the merchant and authentication processing server) and Pin Entry Device tampering," and other high-tech risks?
This is where iTrust StrongBox can mean the difference between disaster and peace of mind.
Learn more about iTrust StrongBox and how it can help keep you, your business and your family safe from credit fraud.
Follow the iTrust Blog, iTrust Security News and iTrust CyberCrime News to keep up-to-date on the latest news, articles and trends in Credit Security.
