Lawsuit Aims to End Banks’ Secrecy of Security Breaches

Project Honey Pot, an initiative for spam defense by Unspam Technologies along with Internet Law Group, in an attempt to compel banks to disclosing their experiences of data hacks, sued the unknown Internet thieves on August 19, 2009, as reported by InformationWeek on August 20, 2009.

The lawsuit, with the help of the CAN SPAM Act, intends to acquire the forensic details of the security breaches targeting banks so that it becomes easy to pursue the perpetrators.

Understandably, corporate banks are losing several million dollars to cyber criminals such as malware purveyors and hackers every month, but they are greatly reluctant to admit that the problem has a wide range.

Indeed, banks characteristically decline discussing security problems due to the fear that their reputation might be hampered and liabilities increased. However, computer security specialists in general contend that it is better to share information for the improvement of the security of systems.

They also elucidate that hackers infect innumerable PCs with malware, which trace their users' activities, and hang around till the users log onto their credit card or bank accounts. Subsequently, the malware transmits the victims' usernames and passwords for their financial accounts to the remotely operating hackers, who then utilize the information to access the accounts themselves.

Matthew Prince, Co-creator of Project Honey Pot and Adjunct Law Professor at John Marshall Law School, said that the objective behind the legal suit was to make banks realize the gravity of the problem so that it was easy for the security researchers to locate the perpetrators and enforce security to stop the problem, as reported by InformationWeek.

Joe Stewart, Director of malware Research firm SecureWorks, said - hackers simply weren't concerned whose account they attacked, as reported by NYTimes on August 19, 2009.

Arguing that the lawsuit shouldn't have been filed, Partner Scott H. Frewing of Baker & McKenzie Law Company that functions on behalf of leading banks said that banks weren't behind such crimes; in fact, they expended any amount of money to stop the occurrences of such acts, as reported by NYTimes on August 19, 2009.

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» SPAMfighter News - 8/29/2009