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Who's Really Responsible In Online Banking Fraud?
TheRealStyro writes "According to this article a Miami businessman is suing a bank because of a fraudulent fund transfer possibly caused by the coreflood virus/trojan. He claims the bank is responsible because the bank failed to protect him from known online banking risks. It is obvious that this guy should have had an anti-virus package active, but shouldn't the bank have questioned such a large transfer to a republic of the former Soviet Union (these republics having gained the unfortunate notoriety of being dens of villainy and hackerdom)?"
Over here in Switzerland all banks use a strong authentication scheme to make sure only the owner of an account can get in. My UBS account has a challenge/response system (needs a special calculator and account-specific chipcard). My two other banks use a one-time pad where the same code is only valid for a single login. When the old pad is almost finished they just send a new one.
Simple passwords are just not safe enough on the internet. Unfortunately in the real world the real joe user is just not able to make absolutely sure that no cheating is going on.
The banks should at least take a part of the blame if they are too lazy to implement something safe.
Markus
If you want to change the reputation these countries have, maybe you should encourage their government to take out the garbage and promote their strengths.
I think that you still didn't get my point -- Latvia is in the EU and is not, therefore, marred by rampant corruption or a careless government. Other ex-URSS countries -- Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Belarus -- and so on have a loooong way until they reach the standards of Latvia (or the Baltic countries in general) in terms of quality of life, (lack of) corruption, etc. To be fair, Latvia has a long way until reaching the standards of the Scandinavian countries, for instance, but that's another discussion.
What I was "protesting" against is simply the automatic labeling of all possible "dens" for "cybercriminals" as such. Some countries are different than what your local newspaper -- or ignorance -- might imply.
Doomie
Ok let me get this straight. If I transfer 90,000 to my business partner in Soviet Russia, then the bank will call the police, brand me a terrorist and throw me in jail.
No, the bank should contact you to additionally validate the transaction if it might appear suspect - especially for this kind of money. After all, you must have given them a valid contact point, did you not?