Hacking

Some security experts have warned that Iranian hackers may go after U.S. targets, including financial services companies, in retaliation for the U.S. government's assassination of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani.

The U.S. unveiled criminal charges and sanctions against members of a group that calls itself Evil Corp, which authorities blame for some of the worst computer hacking and bank fraud schemes of the past decade.

For hackers, ATMs serve as “welcome mats” for company networks where much customer information is stored, writes Eric Crabtree, vice president and global head of financial services for Unisys.

The cryptocurrency boom has encouraged attackers to expand their focus from other methods such as utilizing malware to steal data and impose ransoms or launching a disruptive DDoS attack, to employing tools and techniques to gain access to the computing power of enterprises to generate cryptocurrency payouts, writes Carolyn Crandall, chief deception officer at Attivo Networks.

Hackers are illegally generating Monero, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by exploiting a software flaw that was leaked from the U.S. government, raising questions about the security of one of the fastest-growing corners of financial markets.

The hackers gained entry to affected systems through a client-access portal and the company’s internal monitoring systems detected the intrusion.

Equifax, the credit bureau breached by hackers last year, said the card-payments industry may cut off its access to certain data or impose fines if the company can't prove it's addressed weaknesses.

Equifax, the credit-reporting firm that suffered a massive data breach last year, said it will notify an additional 2.4 million U.S. consumers that they were affected by the hack.

Cybersecurity systems, as sophisticated as they are, are clearly not doing the job. And maybe they never will, given that in the end the effectiveness of those systems can be overridden by workers inside the organization, writes Tal Vegvizer, director of research and development for Bufferzone.

Finance organizations serious about protecting their customers need two-factor authentication, which involves the mobile phone when logging in to transfer money, writes Michael Patterson, CEO of Plixer.