Focus more on cybersecurity, banks told

Hyderabad: In view of an increasing number of bank account hacking cases resulting in huge financial losses, the Hyderabad City Police along with the Reserve Bank of India conducted a meeting with representatives of banks here on Thursday. About 51 urban cooperative banks and other banks participated in the meeting, wherein the police briefed them […]

Hyderabad: In view of an increasing number of bank account hacking cases resulting in huge financial losses, the Hyderabad City Police along with the Reserve Bank of India conducted a meeting with representatives of banks here on Thursday.

About 51 urban cooperative banks and other banks participated in the meeting, wherein the police briefed them on cyber security measures to be implemented to prevent such cases.

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City Police Commissioner CV Anand, who after studying the security loopholes in the Mahesh Urban Cooperative Bank Limited case, said urban cooperative banks and other small banks were more susceptible to hackers because of inadequate cyber security measures.

“The meeting was to educate and enlighten banks institutions on the danger due to online banking. It was explained to them in detail about phishing mails, trojans, key logger software, etc.,” the Commissioner said, adding that banks should spend sufficient budgets to deploy firewalls, intrusion prevention and detection systems, anti-phishing systems, segregated system networks and virtual LANs, apart from avoiding usage of common user IDs and passwords.

“Banks are dealing with public money, earning profits and it’s their duty to safeguard it while offering internet and online banking services. Criminal liability will be with the bank as it’s a criminal breach of trust,” he said. The Commissioner also appealed to RBI officials to tighten enforcement and take punitive measures to bring such banks under control before more cases are reported.

“Banks must put in more efforts to combat growing cyber threats. A series of cyber drills are necessary and banks, and regulators should be part of such exercises to smoke out vulnerabilities and to keep their first responders sharp,” he said.

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