Data security

Morgan Stanley on Thursday disclosed that a data breach at one of its contractors led to the theft of personal information about some customers whose stock accounts had gone dormant.

Fraudsters use different tactics based on their intended victims, and banks like Republic Bancorp and Wells Fargo are targeting the kinds of notices they send — and which channels they direct them to — in response.

Europe has encouraged adoption with rules that put consumers in control of the way their data is shared among banks, fintechs and third-party vendors. Whether the U.S. can make similar progress without its own rules is unclear.

The government helped the gas pipeline operator recoup some of the funds it paid to cyberthieves, but that's unlikely to happen often. Banks should shore up password security to minimize risk and be willing to reject hackers' demands in the event of a breach.

A slew of websites operated by financial institutions, governments and airlines including Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing and Australia’s central bank went down briefly Thursday in the second global internet outage in two weeks.

Before its disappearance, Avaddon said it hacked Valley National Bank's network and threatened to leak sensitive data. The bank is still investigating.

Financial firms can minimize the damage by understanding where key threats lie, educating employees and customers about phishing scams, and breaking down silos between compliance, fraud and security teams.

With the Colonial Pipeline attack still in the news, bank CEOs testifying at a recent hearing cited cyber risk as the biggest threat facing the industry. But members of Congress did not share those concerns, and instead were more focused on criticizing banks about overdraft fees and their level of investment in minority communities.

Scams in which a real person’s information is used to create fictitious businesses or individuals have led to $6 billion in credit losses. The Federal Reserve has developed a standard definition for synthetic identity fraud so lenders can distinguish it from traditional identity theft.

Hackers, including the group behind the breach at Colonial Pipeline, have posted convincing evidence that they have broken into the servers of community banks in Florida and California and stolen customers' data.

The most sophisticated cyberattacks can begin with something as simple as a text message.

The risk is growing that criminals or hostile nations could use quantum computing to hack into the ledger systems that control bitcoin and other digital currencies.

The risk is growing that criminals or hostile nations could use quantum computing to hack into the ledger systems that control bitcoin and other digital currencies.

There is no doubt 2020 was a year of contactless transactions. But what implications do contactless payments present when it comes to security?

Bank of America is devoting more resources to fighting cyberattacks after seeing a jump in threats amid the pandemic.

Some say Equifax, Experian and TransUnion are too slow to investigate grievances, prompting more complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But the big three say other forces are at work.

The Tennessee company said an unauthorized party gained access to dozens of accounts and obtained less than $1 million from some of those accounts.

The agency will hold an exercise this summer related to emerging fraud risks and one board member suggested Congress should once again consider allowing the NCUA to oversee third-party vendors — a measure that would cost the regulator roughly $2 million a year.

Keeping up with new retail trends shouldn’t come at the cost of keeping personal information safe, says Bluefin's Ruston Miles.