Cyber bank robbing is all of the rage in parent programs throughout the country.  This is primarily due to the recent press about a cyber bank robbing team which has successfully breached the security infrastructure of some well established banking institutions.  SecureWorks security investigator Joe Stewart who tracks security breaches said that, “over the past 16 months this cyber gang has infected PCs inside thousands of companies, hospitals, universities and government agencies.” 

 

After the cyber crooks slip past the digital security guards and disable the motion-detector cameras they infect the banks computers with a homegrown data-stealing program.  Viola!  The program then starts pulling pennies from online accounts.

 

So how big of a problem is cyber bank fraud?  I do not want to ‘alarm’ you but, F-Secure, a company that provides internet security tools for home computers, says that it’s on the rise.  In fact, the malicious code called a ‘Banking Trojan’ which is specifically designed to assist cyber scum in their efforts to break into an online bank account reached over 24,800 variations.

  

What are banks doing to thwart these threats?  Key Fobs!

  

Traditional brick and mortar, as well as, internet banks are issuing a six-digit pass code stored in a keychain fob to customers in order to secure the online banking experience. The fob issues a unique pass code every 60 seconds to ensure that the transaction is secure and valid.  The banking institution has ‘coined’ the key fob solution – two-factor authentication.  It’s called two- factor authentication because it requires two forms of information in order to verify a person’s identity.

 

Let’s hope these key fobs can create a digital ‘fence’ to keep out the online mobs.