As a data entry company serving diverse businesses and working closely with them, we know the value data holds for businesses. It is a set of values especially facts or numbers that are collected, examined, and analyzed to help in decision making, or information in an electronic form that can be stored and used by computers. Human resource department, finance department, and marketing department all use data to streamline the process of getting a product or service into the hands of the customers. The ability to analyze and act on data helps in the growth of the business. When you work with critical data, especially financial data and other sensitive information, it is important to ensure data protection. Keeping your data safe should be the number one priority for any company. By ensuring that your financial data is secure, you can safeguard the reputation of your business and the public opinion of your company.
The following are some of the ways your financial data may get stolen:
- Fake calls from banks: Some crooks pretend to be bank employees and collect data such as your phone number, address, date of birth, social security number etc from data vendors. They call intended victims and claim that there is a problem with their account. They often sound very convincing that the victims reveal their user names and passwords during the course of the call. Another attempt is, hackers will call the victims and ask for their OTP that comes on the victim’s mobile number. Experts repeatedly warn the account holders not to share any financial data. Banks usually asks for verification only when the account holder calls the bank and not the other way round. If they fail to get any details in the first call, they will call again to saying that there is a major problem with your account before disconnecting the call. If the victim calls back, which happens in most cases, the hacker would demand all the details using the banking rules. So, never call back on the same number and you call your respective banks to know about your account status.
- Card skimming or card cloning: This is one of the most common cases reported and it often happens in ATMs. The fraudster usually gets an unattended ATM and plant a cloning device. These devices can copy bank data stored in debit or credit cards and make duplicates of it. To avoid this check your card and the PIN entry pad of the ATM before starting any transaction. It is better to cover the PIN entry action while keying. Make sure that you follow this procedure when you are using your card in restaurants or shops.
- Scamsters at work: Scamsters have good technical skills. Other than getting data from vendors, scamsters use data analytics to mine more data from the victim’s social media accounts. They use tools that make detection of fraud difficult. Hackers can hide their number and use a colleague’s data when they call the bank to change some critical information like email id. Once they get a new email id they hack the data, change the password and gain access to all critical data.
Cyber Criminals Try New Techniques to Hack Financial Data
According to Javelin Strategy & Research’s 2018 Identity Fraud Report, 16.7 million consumers experienced fraud activities or data theft in 2017. This year, according to their research, there’s a wider upward trend across different fraud categories. If a decline is observed somewhere, it may because the cybercriminals have found a more profitable opportunity somewhere else. For instance, with the introduction of chip cards, cyber thieves started misusing victims’ credit cards online rather than hacking them in store. Intermediary new account fraud is the new trend where Scamsters use Social Security numbers to and other related data to open new accounts in the victim’s name. The aim of Scamsters is to use new intermediaries to access and drain a victim’s current financial data. This incident is less likely to raise a red flag because it looks like you are transferring money to your account. With this new intermediary, thieves can easily transfer all the cash and lock out the real owner. So, make sure to keep tabs on your accounts by signing up for alerts to new transactions and other activities that could point to potential fraudulent activities.
For businesses, data may be shared with third party, data entry services for converting data into digital format. To avoid loss of data, make sure to choose a professional vendor who assures data protection.
