Mobile Payments Users Beware: Large Banks Coming Under Cyberattack

It’s about the last thing you want to hear if you’re a mobile payments user with a big bank. Or if you just have accounts with one. New reports, however, have said it nonetheless: large US banks have seen marked increases in hacking attempts and other similar cyberattacks over the last few weeks.

The government, for its part, is encouraging large banks—banks such as Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo—to step up their vigilance against potential incoming traffic that would signal potential hacking.

Large banks make prime targets, not solely because of the sheer load of information they contain, but also the potential to raise havoc in the markets overall.

Yet word from FS-ISAC says there has been “no heightened increase of cyberthreats to the financial services sector.” While there hasn’t been a specific call for new threat awareness, banks appear to have been preparing as if there were one, or would be one. Back last year, major banks were pushing for protecting their systems in a bid to fend off a bank run by panicked account-holders. That effort was known as Sheltered Harbor, and it represents banks and credit unions that, between them, have about 400 million accounts just in the US.

However, it’s some of the less-considered attacks that may be the worst. Data theft would be terrible, yes…but what about accounts held under ransomware? Or outright data destruction? Banks would be unable to focus for days, potentially even months, a move that would cripple at least sectors of the economy.

Given the interconnected nature of the economy—not just within the United States but between the US and the rest of the world—banks down for even several days could be a blow from which we couldn’t recover easily. Imagine the chaos if a bank’s entire ATM network was shuttered, or every one of its branches closed. Your paycheck becomes uncashable, your direct deposit unreachable, and your ability to pay bills completely flatlined.

This is the start of a disaster scenario, and one that makes clear how important security for banks really is. Hopefully, this report lights a few fires under a few banks and makes for improvements before something disastrous happens.