Data breaches

A man entered a SunTrust branch in Sebring, Fla., and shot and killed five women, four of whom were bank employees; 24 million mortgage documents exposed in data security lapse; the battle for deposits is like "a steel-cage" match; and more from this week's most-read stories.

Spring Labs is spearheading a group of prominent fintech lenders to use a blockchain-based, peer-to-peer network to share consumer information to help with ID verification on loan applications.

The industry faces a range of risks every day ranging from natural disasters to employee misconduct. Management needs a plan in place for when a problem arises.

Widespread hacks often make front-page news, while measuring the actual harms to customers when personal financial information is stolen gets little attention.

Widespread hacks often make front-page news, while measuring the actual harms to customers when personal financial information is stolen gets little attention.

Despite what we assume are dedicated efforts to protect customer’s personal information, hackers are finding the loopholes in businesses’ process and technology data protection life cycle. It happened with Target in 2013, the Home Depot in 2014, and many others since, writes Todd Feinman, co-founder and chief product officer of Spirion.

Names, email, encrypted passwords and information related to Facebook and other networks are all at risk, according to Marty Puranik, CEO of Atlantic.Net.

When so many users trust large companies like Google with their personal data, it's up to these companies to disclose any compromise of the data security as early as possible, writes Aman Khanna, vice president of products for ThumbSignIn.

A former senior staffer at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was found guilty of embezzling confidential information about banks from the agency before she left her post, and could face up to 20 years in prison.

It can be difficult for security analysts to pinpoint the abnormal behavior while sorting through huge amounts of data, according to Steve Moore, chief security strategist at Exabeam.

The Marriott incident will open the door to loyalty program fraud, account takeover and myriad other risks, writes Michael Reitblat, co-founder and CEO of Forter.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee concluded that last year’s massive data breach at Equifax was fully preventable, but stopped short of recommending new laws aimed at averting future hacks. Democrats called the final report a “missed opportunity.”

Familiar recriminations and calls for legislation from lawmakers followed the massive hack of the Starwood hotel chain, but will Capitol Hill actually do anything?

Businesses need to prove that they have taken all possible actions to inform and mitigate the damage during an event, writes Ryan Wilk, vice president of customer success for NuData Security, a Mastercard company.

The comments by Brent McIntosh, Treasury's general counsel, are at odds with concerns by state regulators and consumer groups who fear that a national standard on how firms handle data breaches could weaken pre-existing rules.

Hotel and airline breaches have become far too common, according to Pravin Kothari, CEO of CipherCloud.

The bank says a calculation error led it to deny help to distressed homeowners; a former U.S. deputy attorney general will help with in the 1MDB fraud scandal.

The breach may have occurred through a technique called "credential stuffing," in which hackers who have stolen passwords for other websites try them out on an online banking site.

Main Street and Wall Street banks show strong earnings gains over last year; the president calls the Fed’s rate raising policies “my biggest threat.”

Consumers were scaling back Facebook usage even before last month's news of a massive data breach at the social network, leading some credit unions to question how they use the site.