Banking Security

Purpose

The purpose of this letter is to propose the creation of an independent review and guidelines board. Its purpose will be to recommend and test banking security and follow the U.S. government’s recommendation of collaboration for Internet security efforts between industry competitors.

Problem

The President has stated that cyber-espionage and security is the biggest threat facing America and its businesses today (White House, March 2013). As technology increases, the ways to perform criminal activities also increases. Cybercriminals find ways to steal identities, bank account information, credit card numbers and other important information. The four main ways that this is done is through phishing, viruses, getting your passwords, or hacking your accounts.

Phishing

Many people all of cross the world have been targets of attempted phishing attacks. In an article about Bank of America and their efforts to increase Internet security, it says that:

“In the typical phishing attack, a cybercriminal sends an email that looks like it's from a consumer's bank and fools the consumer into divulging personal information, say, by asking the person to confirm account information. That information, of course, can then be used to conduct all manner of online banking and mobile banking fraud.” (Crossman, para. 3)

This means that many consumers could be at risk of giving away valuable personal information because that may not know the difference between phishing and official company e-mails. While e-mail is the now the main way to phish, there are may other ways that cybercriminals try to get your information such as social media, chat rooms, and even through your phone. There are a couple ways to prevent you from being a victim of phishing. You have to make sure you have good Internet security and that you are knowledgeable about the differences between phishing and official company e-mails and websites.

One way that consumers can be sure that the information...