In the early 1980s, South Africans were gripped by tales of the most infamous bank robbery gangs the country had ever known – The Stander Gang. The gang would boldly walk into banks, brandishing weapons, demand cash and simply disappear. These days, a criminal doesn\u2019t even have to be in the same country as the bank he or she intends to rob. Cybercriminals are quite capable of emptying bank accounts without even stepping out of their own homes.<\/p>\n
As we become more and more aware of cybersecurity and the breaches that can occur, we\u2019ve become more vigilant. Criminals, however, are still going to follow the money and, even though security may be beefed up in many organisations, hackers are going to go for the weakest links. This makes it quintessential for consumers and enterprises to stay one step ahead of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only do these cyber bank criminals get away with the cash, they also end up damaging an organisation\u2019s reputation and the integrity of its infrastructure,\u201d said Indi Siriniwasa, Vice President of Trend Micro, Sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd sometimes, these breaches mean they get away with more than just cash \u2013 they can make off with data and personal information as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because the cybercriminals operate outside bricks and mortar, going for the cash register or robbing the customers is not where their misdeeds end. Bank employees \u2013 from the tellers to the CEO \u2013 are all fair game.<\/p>\n
But how do they do it? Taking money out of an account is not the only way to steal money. Cybercriminals can zero in on the bank\u2019s infrastructure, or hack into payment systems and even payment documents. Part of a successful operation for them may also include hacking into telecommunications to gain access to one-time pins or mobile networks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just about hacking, it\u2019s also about the hackers trying to get an \u2018inside man\u2019 in the bank who could help them or even using a person\u2019s personal details to get a new SIM so that they can have access to OTPs,\u201d added Siriniwasa.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, they also use the tried and tested method of phishing which continues to be exceptionally effective \u2013 despite the education in the market to thwart it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The amounts of malware and available attacks to gain access to bank funds is strikingly vast and varies from using web injection script, social engineering and even targeting internal networks as well as points of sale systems. If there is an internet connection and a system you can be assured that there is a cybercriminal trying to crack it. The impact on the bank itself is also massive, with reputations left in tatters and customers moving their business elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see that cybercriminals use multi-faceted attacks,\u201d added Siriniwasa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means that we need to come at security from multiple angles as well. Every single layer of an organisation\u2019s online perimeter needs to be secured. Threat isolation is exceptionally important and having security with intrusion protection is vital. Again, vigilance on the part of staff and customers also goes a long way to preventing attacks. These criminals might not carry guns like Andre Stander and his gang, but they are just as dangerous \u2013 in fact \u2013 probably more so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the early 1980s, South Africans were gripped by tales of the most infamous bank robbery gangs the country had ever known – The Stander Gang. The gang would boldly walk into banks, brandishing weapons, demand cash and simply disappear. These days, a criminal doesn\u2019t even have to be in the same country as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":24783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,565,134,5,136,6,19,13],"tags":[449,388,6369,1882,409],"class_list":["post-24782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-banking-finance","category-blog","category-enterprise-security","category-industry-expert","category-insights","category-regional-news","category-top-stories","tag-cybercriminals","tag-cybersecurity","tag-indi-siriniwasa","tag-southern-africa","tag-trend-micro"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24782"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24813,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24782\/revisions\/24813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}