How to Respond to Vishing Attacks

Bank, State Association Share Tips for Incident Response Plan

By Linda McGlasson, Managing Editor

In early February, five financial institutions in four states -- Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Mississippi -- reported being hit by telephone-based phishing, or "vishing" attacks.

Those incidents were part of a series of similar attacks that have targeted institutions and their customers since last fall.

Vishing is a form of phishing, where instead of people receiving an email trying to lure them into giving personal information, the criminal uses a phone call, either live or automated, to attack the bank or credit union customer and get critical information. In response to this spree of attacks, banking/security leaders from one of the impacted states have put together a vishing incident response plan for financial institutions.

To read the entire article, click here - http://www.cuinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=2457&rf=2010-04-26-ec

Fighting Fraud In The Re-Set Economy

By Tom Field

Just back from the FICO World event in Miami, where yesterday I gave a presentation on "The State of Banking Information Security Today."

Such a pleasure to discuss these issues with folks who have a vested interest in banking and security, and I was most pleased to see representation from some of the nation's largest banking institutions, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase.

To read the entire article, click here - http://blogs.bankinfosecurity.com/posts.php?postID=525&rf=041710eb

Bill Would Create State Department Cybersecurity Coordinator

By Eric Chabrow, Executive Editor, GovInfoSecurity.com

Legislation introduced in the Senate Monday would, figuratively speaking, create a United States ambassador to cyberspace.


The International Cyberspace and Cybersecurity Coordination Act of 2010 would authorize the creation of a senior coordinator at the State Department with the rank of ambassador at large, according to a statement issued by its sponsors, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D.-Mass., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D.-N.Y.


To read the entire article, click here - http://www.govinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=2411&rf=041310eg

Fraud Expert Details What Must Be Done To Protect Business Accounts

By Linda McGlasson, Managing Editor

What can - and should - a banking institution do to help protect its business customers?

Mike Urban, senior director of Fraud Solutions at FICO, has studied this question and offers his observations on how institutions and customers can fight back against the risks of online fraud.

"Really, the problem is that ACH fraud can be as lucrative or even more than physically breaking into a retail establishment and stealing card data," Urban says. "It can really be lucrative for a one-time hit on a business." This puts institutions and their business customers in a "Catch-22" position, because small and medium businesses want easy access to their accounts, and institutions look at fraud detection on these accounts as an added expense. "But somehow institutions and businesses have to get closer to the middle and strike the right balance," Urban says.

To read entire article, click here - http://www.cuinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=2375&rf=040510ec

Obama Welcomes Jobs Report As Rare, Good News

By PHILIP ELLIOTT (AP)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Barack Obama on Friday hailed a new government report showing the most jobs created in nearly three years. "We are beginning to turn the corner," he told employees of a manufacturing plant that received government stimulus money.

Steps taken by the government "have broken this slide and are helping us to climb out of this recession," Obama said several hours after the Labor Department reported that businesses added 162,000 jobs to their payrolls in March.

To read the entire article, click here - http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jy6s4th2AWz2wvrF9UGpJs3t_WxgD9ER42VO4

The Faces Of Fraud 2010

By Tom Field

I overheard someone at the recent RSA Conference saying that there were three main themes to the event: Cloud computing, cloud computing, cloud computing.

Well, I'd say there was a competing theme, and it's emerging as the storyline of 2010: Fraud, fraud, fraud.

Payment cards, ACH, ATM - these are the forms of fraud that have made the biggest news so far in 2010. But there's another variation preying upon banking institutions, too, and it deserves its own headlines.

To read the entire article, click here - http://blogs.cuinfosecurity.com/posts.php?postID=510&rf=040310ec

Small Businesses Fret Over Details Of Health Law

By STEVE LeBLANC (AP)

BOSTON — Small-business owner Joe Ascioti says Massachusetts' 2006 health care law has left him facing $15,000 in fines since it took effect. Now, he's worried the nation's new health care overhaul could bring similar woes to employers nationwide.

"The state has mandated something that is one size fits all, which is what this national bill is looking like. And guess who gets to pay for it? The employer," said Ascioti.

As business owners across the country weigh the new law, they're looking to Massachusetts for harbingers of things to come.

To read the entire article, click here - http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g0ZR7xK3OfnUMkC7pOMMHB6Kl38gD9EPFRI80