A regional Virginia bank, the National Bank of
Blacksburg, following a fruitful phishing attack that compromised the entire
organization's interior networks has lost $2.4 million in a digital heist that
affected the STAR ATM along with the debit network.
As per an April 2018 profit proclamation from the
National Bankshares, the parent organization of the bank, National Bank's
computer system experienced two digital interruptions, in the month of May in
the year 2016 as well as in January of 2017.
In the two cases, the interlopers could infiltrate an
inner workstation with a phishing exertion and a weaponized Microsoft Word
document. From that point onwards, the attackers installed the malware, and
pivoted to a machine on the network that had access to the bank's interface
with the STAR network.
The hackers made withdrawals at several ATMs,
recommending a profoundly organized exertion. National Bank employed Foregenix
to examine the 2016 episode and Verizon to deal with the forensics for the 2017
break, as indicated by the claim. According to the reports, the two
organizations followed the movement back to the IP addresses situated in
Russia.
Leroy Terrelonge, director of intelligence and
operations at Flashpoint, in an interview said that,
“Actors who target banks are primarily financially motivated, they want a
large return on their investment in gaining access to the bank and performing
reconnaissance. When attackers are able to establish a presence on a
network through deployment of malware or using stolen credentials, they can
often remain in stealth for a period of weeks or months, and they use that time
to observe the activity of normal users at the bank and perform reconnaissance
of the systems, processes and procedures used. ”
The bank is
presently suing its insurance carrier for not covering the full extent of the
damage. In the claim, it clarified that it had two sorts of coverage for the
cyber issues: The Computer and Electronic Crime Rider, which covers a wide
swath of odious action and misfortunes up to $8 million for every hack; and the
Debit card Rider, which has a $500,000 cap for each incident.
With respect to
the bank's inner endeavors at cyber security in the wake of the hacks, National
Bankshares president and CEO Brad Denardo issued a short media explanation
addressing the matter:
“I would like to
reassure our shareholders and our customers that we take cyber security very
seriously. We have taken the necessary steps to avoid cyber intrusions of the
sort we experienced in 2016 and 2017, and we continually work to monitor and
prevent future threats.”
