Following a major security breach, where thousands of Aussies had their superannuation funds stolen, an investigation has revealed that more than 31,000 passwords from Australia’s Big Four banks have been compromised and shared with cyber criminals online.
Per ABC News, an investigation led by cyber intelligence researchers revealed that passwords “belonging to at least 14,000 Commbank customers, 7,000 ANZ customers, 5,000 NAB and 4,000 Westpac customers,” have been made available for cyber criminals on Telegram and the dark web.
While Australia’s Big Four banks do have anti-fraud protections, cybersecurity experts have warned that customers could “definitely” lose their hard-earned dosh.
Australian research tech firm Dvuln, which made the shock discovery, revealed that rather than the banks having security issues, the information was stolen from devices with “infostealer malware infections”.
“This is not a vulnerability in the banks,” Jamie O’Reilly, Dvuln’s founder, shared.
“These are customer devices that have been infected.”
As it states in the name, infostealer malware is a program made to suck out all of the valuable data from devices and send it to cyber criminals.
The malware can attack and obtain passwords, credit card details, cryptocurrency wallets, personal files, browser data, and so much more.
“We’ve seen a tight correlation between the use of infostealer malware and using those passwords to conduct these types of attacks,” O’Reilly continued.
Following Dvuln’s damning report, Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh told 9News that it’s “top priority” is “keeping customers secure online” and confirmed that the data breach was from personal devices rather than a security breach at the Big Four banks.
“They continue to invest [in] security defences to help keep customers safe, including using advanced intelligence systems to monitor both open and dark web sources for compromised customer credentials,” she said.
“If customers have any concerns about their account details, they should get in touch with their bank as soon as possible.”
Dvuln’s shocking revelations come after a number of Australian superannuation funds were hit by a coordinated cyber attack in early April. As a result of the attack, it is believed that up to $500,000 was stolen from affected members.
To protect your goodies, O’Reilly urges customers to rotate passwords, move passwords to secure devices, stay on top of antivirus updates and utilise the bank’s multi-factor authentication. However, a multi-factor authenticator can also be compromised by this slimy infostealer malware software.
“Nothing is 100 per cent unhackable, but there are definitely strategies that people can use at home to make it much harder for criminals to get their information in the first place,” O’Reilly told ABC.
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