Headlines:
SunTrust Investor Page Hit
Scam artists attacked SunTrust Banks Inc. using a new "phishing" technique that exploited the Atlanta company's relationship with a third-party information provider, according to a notice posted Thursday on the Anti-Phishing Working Group's Web site.
Traditional phishing e-mail scams use messages that purport to be from a financial institution and attempt to lure customers to a bogus Web site. This one used SunTrust's actual investor relations page, which features data provided by Shareholder.com of Maynard, Mass.
The Shareholder.com information appears in a separate frame below a banner that features SunTrust's name and logo. Clearly visible within the URL used for this page is the address for a Shareholder.com site, where this information is actually hosted.
This setup allowed the phishers to replace the Shareholder.com data with a link to their own fake site. The result was a Web page that seemed to be authentic and to be hosted within the bank's actual Web site.
Avivah Litan, a vice president and research director at the Stamford, Conn., market research company Gartner Inc., said that this was the first such incident she had seen.
"It's not a good idea for SunTrust to have this" design, she said. "Linking to other Web sites is not the most secure practice, given these type of attacks, because you can barely control your own Web site. You can't control what's happening on the other sites."
A SunTrust representative said the bank is working to address the problem.
Mobile Approval by Wachovia
Wachovia Corp. has begun notifying customers about loan approval using text messages delivered to their mobile telephones.
The Charlotte banking company's education finance operation, Educaid, Wachovia Education Finance, expects that the service will speed the approval process for student loans.
Doris Grose, Educaid's president, said in a press release Thursday that it is using text messaging to reach students if loan applications need additional information. "We have reengineered our communication methods to dramatically improve our ability to reach students, regardless of where they are," she said.
Wachovia is focusing on students because it thinks they are particularly likely to use text messaging technology. Educaid is one of the nation's top 10 student loan providers.
Wachovia is working with VeriSign Inc. to offer the service, and sending the messages across the Mountain View, Calif., company's messaging network.
