Hackers Take $1 Billion a Year as Banks Blame Clients for Crime

In increments of a few thousand dollars to a few million per theft, cybercrooks are stealing as much as $1 billion a year from small and mid-sized bank accounts in the U.S. and Europe … and account holders are the big losers.

“I think they’re losing more now than to the James Gang, Bonnie and Clyde, and the rest of the famous gangs combined,” said U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat who chaired a Select Committee on Intelligence task force on U.S. cybersecurity in 2010.

Organized criminal gangs, operating mostly out of Eastern Europe, target small companies, school districts and local governments that maintain fat commercial bank accounts protected by rudimentary security measures at community or regional banks. The accounts typically aren’t covered by insurance as individual accounts are.

“Businesses are not equipped to deal with this problem, and banks are barely equipped.” -- Avivah Litan, Gartner Analyst

Click on the PDF button at top right to read or download this excellent Bloomberg article.