Data breaches

Data breaches have been proliferating over the past couple of years, but there's new technology out of the 'bot' and analytics worlds that can help.

A 2010 cyberattack targeting the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. — believed to have originated in China — is reportedly the subject of an FBI investigation.

As retailers, banks and technology companies continue to suffer data breaches, issuers and merchants need to take extra care when selecting payment vendors.

The payments messaging network Swift has told its client banks that the threat of cyberattacks "is very persistent, adaptive and sophisticated — and it is here to stay."

When BankMobile, the brainchild of Jay Sidhu and his daughter Luvleen, relaunches on a new platform in January, security — especially for the onboarding process — will be completely redesigned.

Banks tend to respond to ATM and payment breach risks after an incident. They need to get more proactive.

Financial industry groups have rolled out a plan for keeping bank customers' data safe if a mega-disaster, like a massive attack or a natural disaster, strikes.

Behavioral biometrics has already stopped several million dollars worth of online banking fraud at National Westminster Bank in London.

Any company that uses point of sale systems or technology is at risk.

The president-elect's policies on taxes, offshoring, surveillance and other issues will affect bank technology officers and their vendors in a variety of ways. The positives may slightly outweigh the negatives.

Tesco Bank has confirmed that over the weekend, some of its customers' accounts were subject to online criminal activity, in some cases resulting in money being withdrawn fraudulently.

If modified, the cybersecurity standards in New York State are a step in the right direction to protect banks and consumers.

Online lenders' struggle with fraud is driving them to join new networks designed to find links between fraudulent loan applications and signs of borrowers trying to obtain multiple loans simultaneously.

The cyberattack on internet service provider Dyn that shut down websites all over the world showed the dangers posed by internet-connected things. That includes many machines commonly used in offices and branches.

The Wells Fargo scandal is an example of what happens when a system requires you to effectively hand over the keys to your identity to strangers as if you were giving them your car keys. Moreover, it is a call to banks to restore trust and become leaders in fixing the ID problem once and for all.

Small banks have limited resources to address cybersecurity, but more are turning to advisers and auditors to develop strategies that can keep them safe and compliant.

Institutions should define data "liabilities" and "assets" and represent them in a way that both touts data successes and is transparent about data gaps.

Yahoo says no bank account or card data has been compromised in its massive data breach. Yet hackers could use their ill-gotten personal information about customers to mess with bank accounts.

Some financial companies are leery of betting on an early-stage technology such as artificial intelligence for important jobs like combating account thefts, but PayPal says it works – especially in rooting out false alarms.

With even community banks getting hit by ransomware attacks, there's a long list of cybersecurity practices that bankers can expect their supervisors to scrutinize during upcoming exams.