Banks Are Safe, Right?
An
article in the Star Telegram reports that the OmniAmerican Bank was hacked. According to the article, it looks like the bank did a reasonably good job of minimizing the damage and less than 100 accounts were compromised. But the article goes on to say that the bank also replaced 40,000 debit cards as a “safeguard.”
What went on here? It looks like the bank’s entire system was broken into, PINs were changed, new cards were made and ATM withdrawals were made with abandon. Make no mistake - this was organized crime at work.
An isolated incident? Apparently not.
Martin Carmichael, the Plano-based chief security officer at McAfee, a computer-security firm, said this type of cyber-attack has become “a commonplace occurrence,” although some banks are reluctant to admit that their security has been breached.
We’re told that the account holders suffered no loss. That’s comforting. they’ll sleep tonight - until the identity theft starts. After all, if the bad guys got the information that they got, who’s to say they didn’t get the names, addresses, and social security numbers that are attached to every bank account?
