BMO and CIBC-owned Simplii Financial Pwned…. Tens Of Thousands Of Customers At Risk
The CBC is reporting that CIBC-owned Simplii Financial has warned on Monday morning that hackers had accessed the personal and account information of more than 40,000 of the bank’s customers. Then Bank of Montreal revealed that hackers had stolen data on up to 50,000 of the bank’s customers.
That’s not good. but it is actually worse than that.
The hackers have now gone to the media with threats of leaking the data that they stole when the banks apparently did not pay up a $1 million ransom for the data. CBC managed to take some data that the hackers served up to them and confirmed that it is real. So as a result, all these customers are now under threat of being pwned in epic fashion. This is not good to say the least that two banks in Canada have been pwned like this. These banks have a lot of explaining to do. And you have to wonder if other banks can be pwned like this.
May 29, 2018 at 11:33 am
I offer these comments in the spirit of making the blog more informative. These are not personal criticisms.
With state hacking becoming the norm, with significant expertise and resources, nothing online is safe. Period. There are always risks, no matter what is done to protect data. The banks are going to personally contact anyone whose data has been compromised. So, why not just say that and stop setting expectations that this is an impenetrable wall?
Also, instead of getting all righteous about this, why not outline steps people could take to make sure their data is secure (e.g., don’t use the same passwords or answers to challenge questions on email accounts or other online banking/retail accounts; use another email address for your online banking account now, changing it in the profile section; be very aware of and scrutinize all email activity on the account that was linked to your online banking account, and NEVER click on links sent to you in an email; what to watch-out for in their banking account activity, etc.)
And, as a minor comment on form, is it possible to use other language rather than the word “pwned” so often.