STERLING, VA – Bill Nelson, President and CEO of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), the association for sharing information about physical and cyber security threats and vulnerabilities to help protect the financial services industry, announced the release of the results of account Take Over Survey the FS-ISAC conducted in the second quarter of 2011.

The purpose of this initial survey was to establish a baseline for Commercial Account Take Over attempts and losses for 2009 and the first half of 2010. The survey is a deliverable from the Account Take Over Task Force, a public/private industry proactive effort led by the FS-ISAC to address Account Take Over fraud.

Of the 77 financial institutions that responded to the survey, 21 institutions reported they had account takeover attempts in 2009 or the first half of 2010. There were a total of 108 commercial account take over reported during the first 6 months of 2010, compared to 86 for the full year of 2009.

In 36% of the reported account take overs in the first half of 2010 monetary transactions were created but stopped before funds left the financial institution, compared to 20% in 2009. In 27% of reported account takeovers in the first half of 2010 monetary transactions were created and funds sent out of the financial institution, compared to 63% in 2009.

“We are very excited by these results,” said Bill Nelson. “These 2 statistics indicate that financial institutions are doing a better job of stopping transactions from being created and from leaving the financial institution.”

The total exposure associated with commercial account takeovers was $15,781,530 in 2009 and $10,447,355for the first half of 2010. The average loss per commercial customer was $26.51 in the first half of2010 vs. $19.23 in 2009.

The FSISAC will be conducting another survey in the near future, which will capture data for all of 2010. A follow-up survey for 2011 data is also planned.

 

 

ABOUT FS-ISAC: The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) is a nonprofit, member owned organization that is the only industry forum for collaboration on critical security threats facing the financial services sector. Launched in 1999, FS-ISAC was established by the financial services sector in response to 1998's Presidential Directive 63. That directive - later updated by 2003's Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7 - mandated that the public and private sectors share information about physical and cyber security threats and vulnerabilities to help protect the U.S. critical infrastructure. The mission of the FS-ISAC in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Treasury (Treasury) and the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council (FSSCC) is to enhance the ability of the financial services sector to prepare for and respond to cyber and physical threats, vulnerabilities and incidents and to serve as the primary communications channel for the sector. The FS-ISAC is uniquely positioned to quickly disseminate timely, relevant and actionable information and analysis and Treasury, the FSSCC and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rely on the FS-ISAC to deliver critical information to the financial services sector in times of crisis. More information about FS-ISAC is available at www.fsisac.com.