One in Five Phishing Scams Target Bank Customers

Phishing is not a problem that must only be dealt with by consumers. Businesses are being targeted based on the financial organizations they use, according to the latest research conducted by Kaspersky Labs. The Anti-Virus software provider has been investigating the evolution of phishing. The study looked at the attacks that had taken place between May 2012 and April 2013. The survey revealed that phishers are changing tactics, and are attempting to obtain bank account information. If business bank accounts can be obtained, so much the better. They usually contain much more money than personal accounts.

Hackers often target businesses they despise. Their intention is not always to make money but to cause harm. If bank accounts can be obtained they can be sold to cybercriminals. Accounts are plundered, and sometimes businesses go bust as a result. You may not have offended any hackers, but that doesn’t put you in the clear. Some hackers are involved in organized crime and they will not care who they target as long as money can be obtained.

If a bank is targeted and you lose funds, can you sue them?

A bank is attacked and a business loses money from its account. Can a business sue a bank for a cyberattack? Some are now trying.

EMI has filed a lawsuit against Comerica, in which it claims that the financial institution failed to implement appropriate security defenses which directly led to one EMI employee falling for a phishing campaign. An employee was tricked into revealing EMIs bank account details. As a result, over $500,000 was rapidly transferred out of EMIs accounts. Protections were not in place at the bank to stop this.

Unsurprisingly, the bank has claimed that this was the fault of EMI. It is EMIs responsibility to ensure its employees are trained, and do not fall for phishing campaigns. The bank could have done nothing to prevent that employee from falling for the phishing scam. EMI could have taken action though. It is unlikely that the lawsuit will result in the bank having to cover the losses of EMI.

Phishing prevention starts with staff training

If you want to protect your company’s bank balance, and stop phishers making transfers, the first step to take is to provide all staff members with cybersecurity training. One response to a phishing email is all it takes to see a bank account emptied. It therefore makes a great deal of sense to instruct members of staff about phishing emails. In the above case, the provision of such training may have saved $500,000.

The FBI estimates that these schemes, and other cyberattacks, net online criminals around $100 billion a year. These funds are obtained from large corporations and individuals, but small businesses are now being increasingly targeted. They lack the security software used by large corporations and their bank accounts contain more money than consumer accounts.

Unfortunately for SMEs, the same protections are needed as those used by large corporations. Unfortunately, IT budgets are not nearly as large. SMEs must therefore choose the best protections to put in place that will offer the greatest protection for the least outlay. Many do not even employ dedicated cybersecurity staff, so the products they choose must be easy to install, operate and maintain.

To protect against phishing, businesses must concentrate not on protecting their network with firewalls, but protecting end users. They are the ones who will be targeted by a phishing attack.

There are two methods that can be used in this regard (apart from staff training): The use of a spam filter to prevent phishing emails from being delivered, and a web filter to stop users visiting phishing websites.

The number of phishing attacks has increased significantly over the course of the past year. Because the tactic is proving to be so profitable, 2013 and 2014 are likely to see even more attacks take place. Any business that fails to take action to address the risk is likely to become a victim. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon.