A review of the month's top stories by Managing Editor Tracy Kitten: A well-crafted e-mail tricked an RSA employee into opening a phishy e-mail that launched a sophisticated attack on the company's information systems, and the list of big-name corporations and brands affected by the Epsilon e-mail breach tops 100.
How did fraudsters hijack the identities of scores of South Florida residents for the filing of fraudulent tax returns? Thieves had funds electronically routed to bank accounts, and then quickly withdrew the funds using debit cards at ATMs.
Sony Corp.'s announcement that hackers may have accessed data on 77 million gamers follows a long line of recent breaches. And Neal O'Farrell of the Identity Theft Council says the string of incidents has led to consumer 'breach fatigue.'
Between March 2010 and April 2011, 20 incidents of wire fraud hit small and mid-sized U.S. businesses. All of the transactions involved payments routed to Chinese economic and trade companies located near the Russian border.
Four years ago, the Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers began as an organization to bring standardization to the penetration testing industry. Today, CREST's scope is expanding across industries and global regions, says president Ian Glover.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a healthcare privacy case dealing with the power of states to bar data mining companies from selling information about doctors' prescription-writing habits to drug companies.
A U.S.-based hacker just pleaded guilty to stealing more than 675,000 credit cards that led to more than $36 million in fraud. "These SQL injections are allowing someone in through the side fence, not the front door," says information security attorney Randy Sabett.
"Durbin, as it stands today, is very poor for the payments industry and the consumer, because it would lend itself to reducing fraud prevention and detection," says one banking/security leader.
Online security has come a long way in recent years, but so have phishing attacks. As the Epsilon e-mail breach proves, fraudsters are honing their attacks through the acquisition detailed e-mail profiles and sensitive information connections, says ID security expert Tim Rohrbaugh.
After firing off a letter to Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs that questions the secret tracking, Sen. Al Franken schedules a May 10 hearing before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee he chairs on protecting mobile privacy.
"The phishing only works if the consumer participates; they have to click on something; they have to open something," says Neal O'Farrell of the Identity Theft Council. "So, based on that assumption, shouldn't we be doing more to educate them?"
The bad news is that banks and businesses have not made great progress in the fight against account takeover fraud. The good news is: They have the strategies and tools to win this fight in 2011.
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