text: Largest Case of Identity Fraud in Banking Industry to Date
  Reconnex Alert: Multiple Banks Involved in What Officials Say May Be Largest Case of Identity Fraud in Banking Industry to Date
  Enterprise Risk Management Firm Reconnex ...
  on 2005-05-27 07:51:09 Reconnex Alert: Multiple Banks Involved in What Officials Say May Be Largest Case of Identity Fraud in Banking Industry to Date
  Enterprise Risk Management Firm Reconnex Provides Technology, Legal, and Information Security Experts as Resources
  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 26 -- Reconnex, the expert in enterprise risk management systems, has multiple expert resources available to comment on what officials are saying may be the largest security breach in the banking industry to date. At least four banks, including Bank of America Corp. and Wachovia Corp., are notifying customers that a combined total of over 670,000 accounts may have been compromised, allowing private data to be leaked (see 'Available Resources' below).
  Developments in this case have confirmed that Bank of America Corp. is notifying customers that up to 60,000 accounts have been compromised, while Wachovia Corp. is currently notifying more than 40,000 customers that their personal account information has been stolen. Account information was illegally sold by bank employees to a man identified as Orazio Lembo, whom police said was doing business by illegally posing as a collection agency.
  Based on forensic examination of Lembo's computers, it was determined that he was working with several upper-level bank employees to access and identify personal account information of their customers. Lembo would then sell the information to his clients, which included over 40 law firms and collection agencies. The FBI eventually caught Lembo by setting up a bogus law firm to pose as a customer for Lembo's stolen information. Along with Lembo, seven bank employees are also being charged.
  How Reconnex Could Have Helped:
  By monitoring all the electronic communication leaving the bank -- particularly the information containing private customer data (credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank statements, balances, addresses, and phone numbers) and creating a forensic record of the suspicious activities -- the Reconnex system would have provided the information needed by investigators immediately -- not months later.
  Using the unique forensic capabilities available only in the Reconnex system, investigators would have been provided with all the communications between bank employees and Lembo (including email, Webmail, instant messaging, etc.), providing evidence that FBI investigators could use to track down the suspects immediately.
  After completing nearly 100 Reconnex 48-Hour e-Risk Rapid Assessment(TM) deployments, Reconnex has found that one of the biggest vulnerabilities affecting financial institutions is the trusted insider who has access to customers' private data and then leaks this information out of the bank using Webmail. Prior to Reconnex's system, a solution that could provide forensic record of the information leaving a financial institution has been unavailable.
  "Without exception, every Reconnex 48-Hour e-Risk Assessment in the financial services industry has revealed trusted insiders leaking customers' private data to personal webmail accounts," said Donald J. Massaro, CEO Reconnex Corporation. "Every single institution had already spent millions to establish controls to protect this data. Each were shocked to find hidden threats coming from inside their organization -- threats they could not see before our assessment, but threats that were easy to fix after the assessment. These banks continue to monitor the activity of insiders because they know the insider is where the majority of security breaches originate."
  Analysts agree that over 85 percent of information leaks and electronic security breaches at today's corporations originate within the network. Enterprise risk management solutions close the loop on network security, monitoring, detecting, and reporting on the activity of all information on the network -- including what trusted insiders do with customer private data -- to ensure the protection of confidential information.
  Reconnex's inSight platform is the only comprehensive solution that detects and reports on the "insider" security risk to customer private data and ensures regulatory compliance and protection against identity theft. Reconnex's inSight platform allows customers to respond immediately to all levels of electronic risks, prevent negative financial impacts of these risks, and provide the ability to correlate incidents "after-the-fact," if a forensic investigation is needed.
  Reconnex is the leading provider of enterprise risk management (ERM) systems that reveal and address compliance risks, competitive risks, corporate governance risks and critical infrastructure risks. Reconnex enables Fortune 1000 companies, government organizations, and smaller healthcare and financial services companies to protect their brands, shareholder value, and mission critical operations by revealing hidden risks in the first 48 hours of deployment. Without exception, every deployment has enabled these organizations to quickly remediate the risks that could have damaged or destroyed their organization.