As if there weren’t enough concerns over the security of your banking and credit card accounts – thefts of card numbers, card skimmers and online account hacking, to name a few. As reported by Krebs on Security earlier this month, identity thieves have used stolen online account credentials to add a new mobile phone to accounts, linked that new phone to the online banking app (using the same stolen credentials) and then used the new phone and app to make card-less withdrawals from the account. New technologies are great and often very helpful, but thieves are resourceful, creative and relentless. As consumers of these services and technologies, we must not become complacent. To reduce the risk or exposure of such a hack:
- look out for suspicious emails that could be attempts at spoofing or phishing;
- follow news about security breaches (especially hacks of usernames and passwords);
- closely monitor your account activity for any changes to your information, or other suspicious activity such as unrecognized signons, withdrawals, etc.;
- report suspicious activity soon ; and
- consider enabling multipart authentication if available.
Check out our series, Privacy Perils, to learn what steps you can take to guard your personal and company data. For more information about this topic and other cyber security concerns, please contact a member of our Privacy & Data Security team.