Hackers target digital currency buffs; JPM’s beneficence

Receiving Wide Coverage ...
Digital wrongdoings: Hackers have begun targeting investors in virtual currencies. According to a New York Times report, the hackers obtain the victim’s phone number, reset their passwords, then steal the money in their accounts, which are often unprotected. “Most victims of these attacks in the virtual currency community have not wanted to acknowledge it publicly for fear of provoking their adversaries,” the paper says. “But in interviews, dozens of prominent people in the industry acknowledged that they had been victimized in recent months.”

Virtual currencies are susceptible because “accounts with banks and brokerage firms and the like are not as vulnerable to these attacks because these institutions can usually reverse unintended or malicious transactions if they are caught within a few days.”

Brian E. Finch, co-chairman of the cybersecurity practice at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, says governments and businesses should be more concerned about small cyberattacks than large-scale attacks. “While the possibility of large-scale cyberattacks gets the lion’s share of attention, chaos by small doses is more probable,” he writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece.

Often used by terrorists, “the potential of encrypted messaging to facilitate financial crime is coming into focus,” the Financial Times reports. “Encryption is a growing problem in tackling ‘fraud, money laundering and insider trading,’" a senior FBI agent told the FT.

Wall Street Journal
Walking the walk: JPMorgan Chase said it will donate up to $2 million to human and civil rights organizations following the recent violence in Charlottesville, Va. CEO Jamie Dimon last week criticized President Trump’s response to the events, the bank said it will split $1 million between Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League “to further their work in tracking, exposing and fighting hate groups and other extremist organizations.” The bank will also match employee donations to human rights groups for an additional $1 million.

New York Times
Fuzzy lines: The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission may have trouble proving insider trading charges against the people that received tips from Daniel Rivas, the former IT employee at Bank of America who pleaded guilty last week, writes Peter J. Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University Law School. “Not everyone who gets a tip about an impending deal violates the law,” Henning writes in the White Collar Watch column. “There is a fuzzy line between innocent trades and securities violations.”

Elsewhere
Now it’s closing accounts: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is looking into yet another scandal at Wells Fargo: the bank's alleged closing or freezing customer accounts, leaving people without access to their funds. Reuters says it found “several instances of customers reporting financial hardship in recent years after Wells Fargo unexpectedly froze or closed their accounts. The complaints had consistent themes of confusion about why accounts were frozen or closed, and reflected desperation over being unable to access money, as well as frustration over not getting help from Wells Fargo's customer service.” The CFPB probe was disclosed in an August 4 regulatory filing by Wells.

Quotable
“Wish the moon wasn’t the only thing casting a shadow across the country. We got through one, we’ll get through the other.” — Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, in a tweeted dig allegedly at President Trump.

blankfein_lloyd_bl
Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., listens during an interview hosted by Politico in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, June 13, 2013. Blankfein said debate about when the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates may help avoid "a jarring surprise" to markets. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Lloyd Blankfein

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Financial crimes Digital currencies Corporate philanthropy SEC CFPB Goldman Sachs Wells Fargo
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