Mark Thornton comments in WND‘s article on recent cyber-security breaches. Thornton notes that, when breaches do occur, “Most, if not all of the time, the customer isn’t harmed; it’s the company that’s harmed. As a result, banks and retailers seek out enhanced security so criminals are less likely to be able to detect patterns.”
It’s worth noting the government police do very little to prevent these breaches, and private firms know it. Knowing that such breaches affect consumer confidence, private firms spend a lot of money on private security for their online data.
Thornton notes:
“With the automation of banking, this is something that will continue to happen,” Mark Thornton, senior fellow economist at the Mises Institute, told WND in an interview.
“It’s baked into the cake. Banking will become more and more automated, so cyber-security is something they’ll have to deal with. Criminals will get the upper hand, then banks will incorporate more secure systems, and there will be a back-and-forth between criminals and banks with security. It’s a fact of life.”
Cyber-security affects customer confidence, which is why banks require security firms not to disclose which banks have been hacked, or for how much, so they can fix the problem without undermining consumer confidence.
“There have been many of these heists,” said Thornton. “Not just stealing from banks, but also hacking into retailer’s credit card systems, as happened with Target in late 2013. Most, if not all of the time, the customer isn’t harmed; it’s the company that’s harmed. As a result, banks and retailers seek out enhanced security so criminals are less likely to be able to detect patterns.”
Thornton said a common form of security breach is for criminals to scrutinize bank or retailers’ emails for patterns and templates to get weekly or monthly events or procedures. They then send a very similar email to employees so it appears the employee is receiving a standard, dependable email message.
But the fake email contains malware which is downloaded into the computer system to give the criminals remote access to the bank or credit card system.
“The bank must constantly improve their security procedures,” concluded Thornton. “They’re upgrading all the time.”
