About Us | Contact Us
View Cart

For Those of Us Who Still Question the Supplement

By Vigilize | Wednesday, December 5, 2012 - Leave a Comment

Court finds People’s United Bank security practices to be “commercially unreasonable.”

After hackers stole $300,000 from Patco Construction Company in 2009, a court has ruled that the bank’s security practices were to blame, labeling them “commercially unreasonable.” People’s United Bank will be paying Patco all the money that they lost to the hackers as well as $45,000 in interest.

During the incident, despite suspicious transactions being flagged as “high-risk” by the bank’s security system, the bank failed to contact the customer, resulting in a series of transactions over seven days. By the time Patco realized what was happening, nearly $600,000 had been transferred out of the company’s account.

This isn’t a first for this type of incident. In recent years, businesses around the country have lost millions of dollars to hackers who stole bank account credentials by infecting their computers with malware. In this specific case, an email was sent to employees who opened it and unknowingly installed the Zeus password-swiping trojan on company computers.

People’s United Bank used Jack Henry & Associates’ NetTeller as its security system at the time of the incident which offers a number of authentication options, most of which were rejected by the bank. Not only did they reject the authentication options, but they also failed to configure the system properly and failed to use it properly. The system asked users challenge questions for every transaction customers made. This security measure coupled with hackers installing keystroke-logging malware on company computers means that what the bank thought was a secure system of confirming identity is actually nonexistent. The appellate court ruled that the bank actually increased the risk of fraud by asking the security questions with every transaction.


Original article by Kim Zetter.
Read the full story here.

Latest News
    Artificial intelligence carries risk, but so does organic ignorance … Another one of those Dan’s New Leaf Posts, meant to inspire thought about IT Governance . . . . At a recent conference, I noticed two camps emerging in the debate over artificial intelligence. Some people embrace AI as a tool, while others support Elon […]
    PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BUSINESS NEWS NEW EMPLOYEE FOR INFOTEX We are pleased to announce the appointment of Nathan Taylor as our new Network Administrator at infotex.  “We are very excited to have Nathan join our team as a Network Administrator and look forward to his contributions to maintaining and improving our infrastructure!” […]
    about artificial intelligence . . . And who will protect us from it . . .  Another one of those Dan’s New Leaf Posts, meant to inspire thought about IT Governance . . . . Just watched some press on the the Senate hearings over regulating AI. The normal senator faces, Sam Altman of OpenAI, […]
    The Evolution of an Inside Term Used in our Vendor Risk Report Another one of those Dan’s New Leaf Posts, meant to inspire thought about IT Governance . . . . Those who audit infotex know that our vendor risk report refers to a couple of our providers as “ransomware companies.” This reference started evolving […]
    Another awareness poster for YOUR customers (and users). Now that we have our own employees aware, maybe it’s time to start posting content for our customers! Check out posters.infotex.com for the whole collection! Download the large versions here: Awareness Poster (Portrait) Awareness Poster (Landscape) You are welcome to print out and distribute this around your […]
    New tools could allow unskilled attackers to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks… An article review. Imagine a world where you receive a call from your boss asking you to assist them with something… only it’s not your boss, but an AI being used by an attacker.  This isn’t science fiction, it’s an actual attack that has […]
    Unavailability Strikes Where it doesn’t matter anyway Another one of those Dan’s New Leaf Posts, meant to inspire thought about IT Governance . . . . So, I’m writing today’s article from a resort in the middle of Wisconsin.  I want to make sure I’m staying on top of my New Leaf, which is to […]
    . . . and the importance of segregated response. The latest edition of Executive Vice President, Michael Hartke’s article series! In 2007 when I first joined infotex, coming from small to medium sized business general IT support into the world of cybersecurity, the one thing that was very hard for me to internally rectify was […]
    How concerts can help us understand APTs . . . Especially if you use your imagination! Another one of those Dan’s New Leaf Posts, meant to inspire thought about IT Governance . . . . My daughter reminded me of a concert Stacey and I attended way back in 2013, in Chicago.  It was one […]
    Mutiny! The Malicious Insider Threat Webinar Registration A Webinar-Video It is often awkward to bring up the one attack vector most of us have not addressed. The malicious insider threat. Even if we can flaunt all statistics and claim that the likelihood of an insider attack is low in our bank, the impact is still […]