This was reported in the Cape Argus on July 5th –
The short version: a business man used an internet cafe to log onto his Standard Bank online banking. This resulted in someone getting his logon details and proceeded to withdraw over R700 000 out of his bank account ! (You can read the full article here)
Banking systems have not implemented that One Time Password, so how are these accounts still being hacked ?
Simple – the one time password, is send via Email to the person whose info was just hacked ! So all the hacker needs to do is log onto the victim’s email, get the One Time Password, and use it on the banking site.
What should you do to avoid this happening to you ?
1. If you must use Internet Cafe – DON’T log onto anything sensitive – like your bank. Rather go to your bank and either do the transactions are the counter or use their in house computer that is set up just for internet banking
2. Watch your bank account carefully – looks out for small transactions that you don’t normally make.
3. Set the One Time Password to be SMSed to you rather than emailed.
4. If you need to access sensitive information rather use a VPN connection (ask Swift Consulting to set it up for your business)
5. Instead of using Wi Fi, rather use a cellular modem to get an internet connection (like the 3G Modems). This makes it much harder for anyone to “sniff” the infromation off your computer.
In case you didn’t notice – we are in the information age. Information is a very powerful currency that hackers sell to not-so-nice people !
Be on the look out !
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In the case of internet banking, everything should pass through SSL anyway so the wifi doesn’t particularly matter imho but I fully agree with the rest.
By: Charl van Niekerk on July 6, 2008
at 11:13 am
The 3G networks, and VPN usage sounds interesting.
Would be great if you write a tutorial on how VPN enhances security.
By: Anirudh Sharma on July 10, 2008
at 11:11 pm
[...] here is the story – You have read why you should be careful when using internet cafes in my last post so you now know why you need to have a secure connection which no one can listen to and steal your [...]
By: Virtual Private Network - what are they ? « The Techie Guy’s Weblog - we get IT on July 14, 2008
at 11:39 pm