Regions Bank experienced a "Distributed Denial of Service" (DDoS) attack. DDoS was a way wherein hackers "flood a computer system with information to shut it down". The bank's customers started experiencing problems Friday. Some customers were unable to check their cards or accounts and online banking was disrupted.
Friday is the key word here. Cyber attacks on banks usually occurred on Fridays, as noted by a report by Bloomberg. Yes, cyber attacks have been around for years, according to Symantec Corp., an information security company.
These attacks started as nuisances, causing temporary website outages. This, it seemed, was the most effective, and cheapest, way to rob a bank. Think of it as a common street hustle, except it involved banks and happened in cyberspace.
Clauses on security protocols were required in contracts, without which processors could be liable for losses, according to Frederick Rivera of Perkins Coie who specialized in financial services litigation. Rivera added that if banks had adequate security, they could be left "holding the bag".
According to Symantec's 2012 Endpoint Security Best Practices Survey, the typical organization incurred US$470,000 in losses due to endpoint cyber attacks in the 12 months prior to the survey. These losses were in terms of data loss as well as time and manpower involved to remediate affected endpoints. However, the most expensive loss from these cyber attacks was damage to the brand and reputation of the organization.
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