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 The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) said
it had seen a rise of so-called denial-of-service attacks on bank
websites, which were sometimes a cover for criminals committing
fraud.
The group described one recent case in which criminals stole $40
million from just 12 accounts — far exceeding the actual balance
held by clients — in a sophisticated scheme known as an "Unlimited
Operations" fraud.
Massive client data breaches at retailers Target Corp and Neiman
Marcus Group LLC put the focus on cybersecurity last month, leading
banks and retail groups to join forces to try and fix the issues.
The problems described by the FFIEC, which comprises top officials
from the Federal Reserve and other bank regulators, are of a
different nature, if no less harmful.
In the "Unlimited Operations" fraud, criminals might begin an attack
by installing malicious software on a bank's computers through
phishing emails, and then hack into control panels to raise limits
on how much a cash machine can dispense.
In the final phase, the criminals withdraw large amounts of money
from a number of cash machines within four hours to two days with
stolen bank cards, often on weekends because that is when there is
more money in the machines.
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Such operations can be accompanied by a denial-of-service attack, in
which a bank's website is flooded with information requests so that
it slows down or completely stops working for clients with
legitimate requests.
There was an increase in such attacks in the latter half of 2012,
the FFIEC said, although these were often also launched by
politically motivated groups.
In 2012, Ally financial Inc, Bank of America Corp, Wells Fargo & Co
and other banks suffered denial of service attacks. Sources at the
time told Reuters the attacks could be part of a year-long cyber
campaign waged by Iranian hackers to protest against an anti-Islam
video on the Internet.
(Reporting by Douwe Miedema; editing by Andre Grenon, Bernard Orr.)
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