InfoAnda - Analysis: Banks seek cybershelter with ethical hackers |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Poverty-stricken Albanians hunt for gold | 4 June 2009
Sound of Music cast to reunite on Oprah's show | | 28 September 2010
Birth of a French wine terroir | 3 February 2011

Cyclone kills 85 people in eastern India | 14 April 2010

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Analysis: Banks seek cybershelter with ethical hackers |

Edition: U.S. Article Comments (0) Video Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read IMF cuts U.S. growth forecast, warns of crisis | 17 Jun 2011 ".brands" approach with Internet name shake-up 17 Jun 2011 Oracle seeks up to $6.1 billion in Google lawsuit 17 Jun 2011 Black hole shreds star, sparking gamma ray flash 16 Jun 2011 Syria forces kill 19 in biggest protests: activists | 17 Jun 2011 Discussed 114 Obama weighs new steps to boost jobs 72 Republicans to debate, with Romney the frontrunner 47 Weiner tells friends he will resign: NY Times Watched Airbus' view of flying in the future Mon, Jun 13 2011 Hefner, fiancee split; Schwarzenegger mistress talks Wed, Jun 15 2011 Rep. Weiner resigns over online scandal Thu, Jun 16 2011 small business brad feld: Your idea is not special Every day, venture capitalist Brad Feld receives pitches from entrepreneurs who think their idea is unique. "And they are wrong," he says, noting that Google was not the first search engine and Facebook was not the first social network. What matters most, he says, is "the entrepreneurs’ execution of the ideas." Full Article Top 50 small business workplaces Notes on raising seed financing Analysis: Banks seek cybershelter with "ethical hackers" Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Bank of America says Wikileaks threat details still unknown Fri, Jun 17 2011 Citi says 360,000 accounts hacked in May cyber attack Thu, Jun 16 2011 Special report: Government in cyber fight but can't keep up Thu, Jun 16 2011 Analysis: Computer security attracts venture capitalists Wed, Jun 15 2011 Maple launches formal $3.8 billion hostile bid for TMX Mon, Jun 13 2011 Analysis & Opinion Data breach overload: Is it time for a new law? Default by Greece may start the global restructuring process Related Topics Technology » Related Video Cyber warfare heats up 2:54am EDT Could a cyber attack bring down the banking system? Is Cloud Computing a safer bet in cyberspace? Nation-states and electronic espionage A journalist checks the Senate's website after it was attacked by internet hackers in Washington June 13, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Stelios Varias By Ross Kerber and Maria Aspan BOSTON/NEW YORK | Fri Jun 17, 2011 6:49pm EDT BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Professional hacker Nicholas Percoco received an unusual request from a major financial institution this week: How can you help us avoid becoming the next Citigroup Inc? Amid a wave of cyber attacks on Citi, the International Monetary Fund and other institutions, Percoco and his team at security firm Trustwave Holdings Inc are fielding more and more calls from banks wanting to stress-test their online defenses. Trustwave is increasingly being hired for so-called ethical hacking of banking systems to hunt for weaknesses, he said. It is also selling more data loss prevention software, which can freeze a computer network before an intruder can extract sensitive information. "It's not a new technology, but in the wake of these data losses there's more interest," Percoco, senior vice president at the Chicago-based firm, told Reuters. Trustwave has filed for an initial public offering of stock. Some cyber experts fear many financial institutions have inadequate defenses, due to distractions during the financial crisis and after that led them to ignore IT systems as they dealt with more pressing issues. Percoco says his group almost always manages to penetrate bank firewalls or find other ways to cause mischief, from viewing confidential checking account images online to physically strolling into unsecured data centers. "We'll call the CIO (chief information officer) and tell them, 'We're standing in the middle of your data center. Do you want to come get us?'" he said. ARMS RACE Still, there are signs of progress. Financial institutions are now keeping a closer eye on their databases and making more use of one-time transaction passwords to customers' mobile phones. Bank of America Corp, for example, has a SafePass service started in 2008. Two-thirds of U.S. banks plan to raise spending on fraud-detection and authentication systems in 2011, including all 14 of those with more than $75 billion in deposits, according to a Gartner Research poll of 76 banks. "This is an arms race," said Bill Conner, chief executive of Dallas-based security company Entrust, which sold $35 million worth of security software to financial institutions last year, up 50 percent from 2009. "The risks are out there, the regulators are breathing heavy on this. Now the financial institutions are going to have to spend," Conner said. The question is how quickly can this spending make a difference. Banks have always been targeted by cyber criminals but have so far avoided the worst breaches as hackers focused on softer targets, such as stealing credit and debit card data from retailers. But banks got wake-up calls this month, when the attacks on the IMF and Citi, the third-largest U.S. bank, came to light. Security specialists say Citi suffered the largest direct hit on a financial institution to date. MOBILE BANKING WEAKNESSES As stewards of the payment system, banks face an extra burden to keep the confidence of their customers. Many financial institutions are starting to bulk up security around their treasury services divisions, which can process trillions of dollars daily for large corporate clients, according to the American Bankers Association. But now a new push toward mobile payments by big banks, from BofA to Wells Fargo, has some cyber experts worried. On average, only 8 cents of every dollar that banks spend on IT infrastructure goes toward sustaining and securing that infrastructure, according to Tom Kellermann, chief technology officer at AirPatrol Corp in Maryland and a member of the Obama Administration's Commission on Cyber Security. Bank security chiefs "are always playing second fiddle to the folks that are saying, 'Let's create the wonderful wireless Web portals with access to financial services through our mobile phones," he told Reuters Insider. "Most security wonks would say 'That's a really, really bad idea.'" "I think there's been an over-emphasis in security on perimeter defenses, on the walls and moats of castles, and not enough attention is being paid on remote access and website security," he added. CLEARINGHOUSES VULNERABLE The threats go beyond retail banking. Among the financial system's most vulnerable points are the clearinghouses that act as central counterparties to all traders, security experts speaking at a Reuters-hosted cyberterrorism panel said on Thursday. Mark Clancy, chief information security officer at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, agreed on Friday that clearinghouses are especially attractive targets to hackers -- not because their defenses are weaker than other financial institutions but because they house so much concentrated data. "If you wanted to destroy financial operations, those are the kinds of places you look because they are aggregation points ... they're just more interesting to that kind of bad guy," he told Reuters. He said the DTCC's spending on cyber security has "really in the last 12 months ratcheted" up. Market operators are also vulnerable. Hackers breached Nasdaq OMX Group's systems this year, leaving "suspicious files" on the exchange's servers and sparking an investigation involving the FBI. None of the largest U.S. banks would discuss the latest attacks or make security executives available for interviews. JPMorgan Chase in the past had touted its use of security tokens, but a spokeswoman said it would not discuss the program currently "for security reasons." Some specialists question whether the banks themselves have done enough to fight hackers in the past. Woodbury Advisor payments consultant Steven Kietz, a former credit card executive for Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, said he helped to implement federal guidelines for Internet security standards in 2006 while at Citigroup. But he said those standards are now far out of date, and "five years later we've seen really no new efforts by any of the major banks to protect customers." (Reporting by Ross Kerber and Maria Aspan; Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer and Lauren Tara LaCapra; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Matthew Lewis) Technology Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. Social Stream (What's this?) © Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters Editorial Editions: Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom United States Reuters Contact Us Advertise With Us Help Journalism Handbook Archive Site Index Video Index Reader Feedback Mobile Newsletters RSS Podcasts Widgets Your View Analyst Research Thomson Reuters Copyright Disclaimer Privacy Professional Products Professional Products Support Financial Products About Thomson Reuters Careers Online Products Acquisitions Monthly Buyouts Venture Capital Journal International Financing Review Project Finance International PEhub.com PE Week FindLaw Super Lawyers Attorney Rating Service Reuters on Facebook Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Saturday, 18 June 2011
Pakistan concerned by NATO incursion near border |
U.N. sees unique opportunity for global atom safety |
Mexican teenage girls train as drug cartel killers |
U.N. council recommends 2nd term for Ban Ki-moon |
U.N. rights forum proclaims equal gay rights |
IPO View: Profitless Pandora pricks the tech bubble |
.brands approach with Internet name shake-up |
Amazon, EBay gain on ecommerce data |
Russell Brand, Beyonce invited to be Oscar voters |
Debbie Reynolds selling historic movie costumes |
Syria forces kill 19 in biggest protests: activists |
Fighting as Libyan rebels try to close on Gaddafi |
South Korean troops shoot at civilian airliner by mistake |
Philippines rules out hero's burial for dictator Marcos |
Former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba dies: report |
Ohio State loses top prep linebacker recruit to scandal
Will Power fastest in IndyCar practice
Reyes keeps up winning ways as Blue Jays edge Reds
Morocco King to lose some powers, remain key figure |
McCourt's court battle continues: one-day trial could decide Dodgers' future
Ty Dillon pulls off another ARCA win
Marathon men John Isner-Nicolas Mahut gear up for part two at Wimbledon
College bowl schedule opens Dec. 17 in New Orleans, two other sites
Some NFL owners unhappy with labor deal
Westwood only player of big three with sub-70 round at U.S. Open
Rain derails Eastbourne play; Baghdatis upset, Vinci reaches final vs. Dokic in Holland
Oracle seeks up to $6.1 billion in Google lawsuit |
Microsoft gets antitrust approval to buy Skype |
Apple and Samsung executives in talks on patent lawsuits |
Analysis: Banks seek cybershelter with ethical hackers |
Somali-owned shops looted, torched in South Africa
Toll from Kabul attack rises to nine: ministry |
Health Law Expands Medicare To Montana Asbestos Patients
Bill signed boosting bear hunter’s rights in Wisconsin
Lebanon sends troops after residents clash on Syria |
Manufacturer for Publix Brand Caesar Salad Dressing Issues an Allergen Alert for Undeclared Fish, Soy and Gluten
Ireland will not field entry for Ocean Race but will team up with China
ANALYSIS: Yemen crisis puts Saudis in powerbroker's bind |
Post workout, Ochocinco likes ex-Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor
Iran defense chief in Kabul as Afghans eye security |
Josh Willingham doubles, roars home on error; 'small ball' A's top Giants
Pitcher Josh Tomlin sharp as Indians topple Pirates
Bahrain to lift ban on opposition party |
Seimone Augustus scores 25 points, Lynx top Dream for 4-1 start
Child’s entrapment, death prompts Big Lots recall of metal futon bunk beds
Mubarak aide Salem hospitalized after Spain arrest |
Hackers might face stiffer sentences in U.S. |
Russian online companies the new investor darlings |
Vatican turns to Internet to stem sexual abuse |
Folk opera based on Bill Clinton to open in New York |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph	VPN on MacOSX	BlogMeter 1.01