Bank of America Denies Breach

Detroit Cardholders Likely Affected by Third-Party

By Tracy Kitten

Bank of America branches in Greater Detroit were reportedly flooded this past weekend, after several BofA debit cardholders noticed fraudulent transactions on their accounts.

According to one local news report, the incident involves more than $100,000 in fraudulent debit transactions. Over the weekend, Detroit BofA branches were working to assess the geographic breadth of the incident, the news report states. How the cards may have been compromised, such as via a skimming attack, also was not known.

BofA spokeswoman Diane Wagner says BofA has not released any information about debit fraud, adding, "There was no breach at Bank of America."

BofA does not provide details about potential debit compromises, Wagner says. "If we think a customer's card has been compromised at a third-party location, we'll block and reissue the card, which is what we did in this case," she says.

To read the entire article, please click here - http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=3479&rf=2011-03-29-eb

Card Skimming Trends for 2011

Mag Stripes, POS Are Top Vulnerabilities to Fraud

By Tracy Kitten

Payments card fraud is not expected to slow down anytime soon, especially from skimming attacks. Industry experts say card skimming at ATMs and points of sale is quickly reaching a tipping point in the United States, where lingering magnetic-stripe technology is making U.S. cardholders easy targets.

At the ATM, card skimming remains the No. 1 fraud threat. But as distinguished Gartner analyst Avivah Litan points out, skimming at point of sale devices is becoming increasingly troublesome. "POS fraud is rising, and it's likely because of skimming," Litan says.

Top Threats

Today's two most common skimming attacks occur at the POS, either by employees who use hand-held skimmers or fraudsters who swap legitimate POS devices for devices that have been manipulated to skim and transmit card data. That so-called swap attack is what led to the card compromise at Hancock Fabrics, reported earlier in 2010.

Pay-at-the-pump terminals and ATMs also rank high in the skimming chain because they are unattended. As Litan says, "They are usually a fraudsters' easiest target." Pay-at-the-pump has proven vulnerable because of easy accessibility. Default codes used to open gas pump enclosures have been exploited by criminals posing as technicians, for instance. Once inside, the criminal can install a skimming device and connect it directly to the terminal's key pad and card reader. It's undetectable from the outside, giving the device ample opportunity to collect card data in real-time, as the card is swiped and PIN entered.

To read the entire article, click here - http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=3199&rf=2010-12-21-eb

More Americans Say They're Cybercrime Victims

11% of U.S. Households Report Computer-Related Crime in Past Year

By Eric Chabrow

Americans are nearly as likely to be victimized by an Internet-based crime as they are of other forms of nonviolent theft. At least that's the perceptions expressed by Americans when asked about crimes committed against themselves and their families.

Eleven percent of American adults report that they or a household member fell victim to a computer or Internet crime on their home computers in the past year, according to a Gallup Poll released Monday. By comparison, over the previous seven years, the percentage of Americans saying their were victimized by computer or Internet crimes ranged from between 6 percent and 8 percent.

Gallup says:

 "At 11 percent, computer/Internet-based crime is edging closer in reported frequency to the most common traditional forms of crime involving nonviolent theft of personal property and vandalism. Further, the increase is an exception in the overall crime picture, in that Americans' victimization reports have been fairly steady over the past several years. Not only has the overall percentage of Americans experiencing any type of crime been fairly flat, but Americans' reports of specific crimes have been flat as well."

to read the entire article, click here - http://blogs.bankinfosecurity.com/posts.php?postID=820&rf=2010-12-14-eb
 
 

Military Overuses PII Raises ID Theft Risk - MUST READ!!!

Report: Uninformed, Cavalier Culture Limits Efforts to Curb PII Use

By Eric Chabrow, Executive Editor, GovInfoSecurity.com

The military's use of Social Security numbers and other forms of personal identifiable information such as birth dates places service members at a higher risk of identity theft than the population at large, and efforts to limit their use are meeting resistance by an "uninformed, sometimes cavalier" military culture.

That's the thrust of a paper written by four senior Army officers and West Point faculty members, entitled The Military's Cultural Disregard for Personal Information, which appears on the website of Small Wars Journal.

"In an era when an individual's Social Security number and date of birth have become the keys to identity theft, the ubiquitous use of the Social Security number by the military services is reckless," the paper says. "The problem is compounded by an uninformed, sometimes cavalier, culture and attitude surrounding the protection of PII that is common in the military."

In an interview, one of the paper's authors addresses the ubiquitous of Social Security numbers in military life. "We use the Social Security number in every aspects, both mundane and sensitive," Lt. Col. Gregory Conti says. "We use the Social Security number as an identifier and as a password. Children 10 years old and up have a military ID card with their sponsor's Social Security number on it. It's in every facet of our lives. It's in our recycling bins. We shout it out in formation; we thumbtack it to bulletin boards. It's everywhere, so we're courting disaster in how we us it."

To read the entire article, click here - http://www.govinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=3150&rf=2010-12-08-eg