Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Cyber criminals go phishing after Wells Fargo crash


In the wake of last week's Wells Fargo computer crash, online scammer's are attempting to cash in, reports IDG News Service.

Starting on Sunday and continuing until Tuesday, many Wells Fargo online banking operations and ATMs were taken offline by the computer crash. A computer security expert has said that the phishing community is now planning ways to take advantage of the crash.

Joel Helguson, a security consultant, told IDG: "They've talked about spooling up their engines and networks to take full advantage of this. "Everybody is sitting there waiting for a bank to screw up. It's like following behind an armored car, waiting for them to make a big mistake, and Wells Fargo just made a big one." Many customers said that transactions that they carried out before the crash have not shown up on their online accounts.

The bank stated: "Using our back-up facilities, we restored internet banking service in about one hour and 40 minutes Sunday, August 19th and within hours, customers could access Wells Fargo Phone Bank Centers and make basic ATM transactions."

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