Permanent TSB hit by cyber criminals

18-01-2008

by Emmet Ryan

Permanent TSB is examining an incident that saw cyber criminals steal money from 40 of its customers' accounts.

The e-thieves took between EUR700 and EUR1,000 from each of the accounts of the banks' customers, using information they had gleaned from customers' laser cards as a result of a phishing attack. The victims were customers of Permanent TSB's Ballincollig branch in Cork.

A spokesman for Permanent TSB told ENN the customers had been refunded and that measures had been taken to protect their accounts.

"These kinds of frauds or attempted frauds are a major problem for all banks," explained Ray Gordon, Permanent TSB spokesman. "We have made significant investment in monitoring and recording suspicious activity. The systems identified suspicious withdrawal patterns and we acted immediately."

He said the customers had been refunded within a few days of the security system spotting the unusual activity. Gordon said this kind of cyber crime was a regular problem that banks have to deal with.

"It's an ongoing activity but this episode highlights the sophistication of the security systems being used by Irish banks. The system was able to identify these amounts amongst tens of thousands of transactions," he said. "The banks in Ireland have invested in security and will continue to invest."

Permanent TSB expects there to be a Garda investigation into the Ballincollig incident and Gordon said the bank will cooperate fully if one does take place.

The relatively small scale of the scam and the speed with which the problem was addressed is a change from the horror stories of recent years which saw a lack of urgency on the part of financial institutions in addressing such attacks during which significant funds were withdrawn from customer accounts.

While this latest incident shows that measures have been taken to protect accounts, further work is needed from both the institutions and their clients to ensure continued protection of this information. Gordon said that while the banks will play their part in protecting data, it was important for customers to play their part too.

"The best protection is customer security," he said. "Customers should be circumspect about where they disclose information and who they disclose it to. Both the banks and customers have roles to play."