Major Bank Raises Alarm Bell on Cyber 'Warfare': Claims 'Entire Community is at Risk'
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Loading... - Stella Grant
- 01 Jul 2024
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Major Bank Raises Alarm Bell on Cyber 'Warfare': Claims 'Entire Community is at Risk'
Australia's big four banks are under relentless cyber attack, according to Chris Sheehan, National Australia Bank's executive for group investigations. He emphasized that all banks are being targeted continuously, putting customers at increasing risk of scams.
"Every bank is being attacked all the time," Sheehan stated, describing the constant attempts to infiltrate bank computer systems, deny services to customers, deploy malicious code, or breach security logins. "If it's not us being attacked, then our customers are being attacked, in an effort to steal their information and their money. There's no typical demographic. The entire community is at risk."
Speaking to The World Today, Sheehan depicted the situation as "asymmetrical warfare" against a variety of threat actors. These range from lone individuals, colloquially referred to as "Larry the loser," attempting to hack systems from home, to highly sophisticated transnational organized crime groups responsible for 90% of the scams affecting Australian victims. At the highest level, banks face attacks from malicious nation-state actors.
To combat these threats, banks, including NAB, have bolstered their cyber defenses. NAB, for instance, maintains a fraud and scams team of nearly 400 people, available 24/7, year-round. In addition, NAB has informed customers that it no longer sends text messages with links, so any such messages should be considered scams.
Despite these measures, Sheehan acknowledged the difficulty in recovering funds once a scam payment is sent. He advised customers to be wary of deals that seem too good to be true or involve high-pressure tactics. "If the story you're being given, either by a text message, email, whatever, contains either of those elements, don't hit send on a payment, run a mile. Seek advice from your bank, talk to friends or relatives, but don't hit send."
The Australian Banking Association concurs with NAB's assessment that the nation's financial institutions are essentially at war, underscoring the urgent need for heightened vigilance and robust security measures.
