Central Bank Heist : Internal Control Weaknesses And Techniques

* “…regularly sent and received wire transfers to and from other countries…transactions were always below the limit that triggered the bank’s reporting requirements.”

For this final paper, I would like to discuss the historical failures that came into light when Mr. Clifford Stoll (the author of “Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a spy through the Maze of Computer Espionage” book) stumbled upon a $ 0.75 accounting error and the revelations that followed, its potential findings, risks and costs associated and why it is important to address and fix those security holes. Cuckoo’s Egg is an interesting read and the author was successful in presenting to his readers the picture of beginning of Internet days (arpanet, then), network practices then. Despite of the fact that this book describes a real incident that in 1980’s, some of the findings are relevant and torment us even today.

Cyber crimes from criminal organizations has risen over the past few years many of these have been located overseas and most of them have been based in Eastern Europe that hire and direct hackers on what they want done. The statement has been made that the battle lines between cyber attacks by organized crime reaches far wider than just an institution's firewalls. One such organized cybercrime unit is the Russian Business Network they are one of the more well known criminal organizations delving into the global networks of the financial institutions.

If there is nothing done about cyber hacking, money, and important resources will be stolen from innocent people trying to live a successful life. “Cyber-crime units exist within local, state, federal, and international law enforcement agencies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) plays a critical role investigating crimes committed through the Internet” (Dingwell).

Michael’s Store, Inc. is an arts & crafts Retail chain. It has more than 1040 stores located in 49 US states & Canada. The company also owns and operates the Aaron brother’s retail chain, which happens to have an additional 115 stores across the Country. Michael’s store Inc. had a Security breach, which took place between May 8, 2013 and January 27, 2014. About 2.6 million cards or about 7 percent of payment cards used at its stores during the period were affected. Alarmingly, its subsidiary Aaron brothers also had been breached between June 26, 2013 and February 27, 2014. It was reported that Aaron brothers had 400,000 cards impacted. The duration of the treacherous attack in total was 8 months (Schwartz, 2014). In this report, security breach of Michael’s store Inc. is analyzed. The topics covered are how the breach occurred, what did the authorities do to educate the customers & how in future such attacks can be avoided.

The risk of financial sector in the United States of America has become increasingly more apparent and more diverse to the United States over the last few decades partially because of the advanced computer and cyber based accounting networks that the Nation has shifted to. The security of our financial systems is absolutely critical including being one of the primary concerns and directly

Times have changed what was known as organized crime has been replaced by Cybercrimes (Heists: Cybercrimes with Ben Hammersley). Cybercrimes have risen dramatically in recent years and have become a major issue the United States and company’s face today jeopardizing as well as threatening the critical infrastructure of America (Cyberwar Threat, 2005). Sadly, the status quo of cyber security is very unstable with the advancements and growth which has put most individuals and businesses into an enormous threat (Agustina, 2015).

Next, they were able to identify the POS devices associated with each store’s self-checkout lanes and install a version of the Malware BlackPOS. This malware collected bank card information and sent it to a Russian IP address until the information was put up for sale and the breach discovered (Banjo, 2014).

Banks are able to prevent kiting from occurring by placing a hold on checks over a certain dollar amount. This will ensure the funds are legit and valid. Banks are also able to watch for multiple check deposits and checks written with the same dollar amount. In addition, banks can require a bank officer’s approval on any drawings against uncollected funds, overdrafts, or wire transfers, they also should perform daily reporting of all drafts against uncollected funds. Kiting can be detoured, however banks must ensure they have the proper internal controls in place to ensure they do not fall victim to kiting.

Anyone discovered by the bank during routine checks with a similar banking pattern can be charged with structuring. However, unlike the Civil Forfeiture Laws, there is a clause to help the average citizen going against the government.

The fourth spoke on the wheel of terrorism is “computer crime”. The use of computers can be used in a good way or can also be abused. Cyberattacks are a huge threat to our national security and technological infrastructure.

As the famous Will Smith once said in his 2015 film, Focus, “There are two kinds of people in this world. There's hammers and there's nails.” Interestingly enough, the truth to that statement could not be emphasized more as with the case of digital crimes involving advance fee fraud scams. In the digital age of the 21st century, “hammers” have enthusiastically adopted computers as their newfound weapon against the “nails” of the earth. It is no secret that digital crime is on the rise and has been ever since the days of phone phreaking Ma Bell. These days, the newest scourge on the pockets and psyches of the average, gullible civilian is the advance fee fraud scam, also known as the Nigerian 419 scam. This paper attempts to further explore this infamous phenomenon in terms of its origin and history, type and design, modern usage, geographical and financial impact, and ultimately its prevention.

Bank of America is a multinational banking institute and one of the most trusted in the banking industry. This organizations sole purpose is to protect the customer’s confidentiality and assets by ensuring that data protection is the number one priority; however any organization when holding personal information can be a victim of data breach and BoA is not exempt. One of the largest risks BoA faces today is Mobile Banking. This consumer convenience is used by fifty percent of smart phone owners (Finney, 2014). Phishing is also threat to the banking industry; this strategy by hackers allows the extraction of consumer passwords and other sensitive information. Hackers targeting banking institution employees with convincing e-mails that fool them into clicking on malicious links-which ultimately compromise their credentials or

Prevalent to the current trend now is the dependency of the society on Information technology and communication systems. Every aspect of human life is one way or the other linked and controlled by information technology tools. The importance of information technology cannot be over emphasized as its unavailability could lead to a form of disaster or the other. Pivotal infrastructures like finance, healthcare, education and security are driven by information technology. However, information technology and its benefits are accompanied by vulnerabilities and risks that can be exploited by people with the necessary technical skills. Individuals like ‘Hackers’ and ‘Cyber Terrorist’ can cause disruption to information systems, commit financial fraud and also attack computers and networks. These attacks and disruptions could result to violence against people and properties. In some cases, death, serious injuries and severe economic loss could occur as a result of these attacks.

When firms like Home Depot and Target invests a lot of financial and non-financial resources to curb the menace, one is left to wonder why such vices continues to affect them and their clients. Hacking of companies in the United States have reached a sky high and notable names in the industry have been affected by the vice. The firms like Home Depot, JPMorgan, Michael, Nieman Marcus and Target, have had its share of this vice. The United States Postal Services have not been left behind also, because it was also affected by the hackers ( 'Cybercrime a