Almost every day now it seems there is news of a new data breach that has compromised personal data. On February 16, antivirus software maker Kaspersky Lab reported that it, along with INTERPOL, Europol and authorities from different countries, uncovered the biggest cyber-robbery in history. As much as $1 billion was stolen over a two-year span from financial institutions worldwide by the “Carbanak cybergang.” These cybercriminals are from Russia, Ukraine and other parts of Europe, as well as from China. In a post on its website, Kaspersky called this “the beginning of a new stage in the evolution of cybercriminal activity, where malicious users steal money directly from banks, and avoid targeting end users.”

According to Kaspersky, over the last two years Carbanak has attempted to attack up to 100 institutions in around 30 countries, including the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Spain, the U.K., Switzerland, China and Russia. They also note that the attacks remain active.

The cybercriminals began by gaining entry into an employee’s computer through “spear phishing,” infecting the victim with the Carbanak malware. They were then able to access the internal network and track down administrators’ computers for video surveillance. This allowed them to see and record the activities of staff who serviced the cash transfer systems. In turn, the hackers were able to mimic staff activity in order to transfer money and cash out.

The cybercriminals then used online banking or international e-payment systems to transfer money from the banks’ accounts to their own. In other cases, they inflated account balances before stealing the excess funds via a fraudulent transaction. The account holder does not suspect a problem because the original balance is still there. Additionally, the gang seized control of banks’ ATMs and programmed them to dispense cash at a pre-determined time. When the payment was due, one of the gang’s operatives was waiting to collect the dispersal.

In the wake of news such as this, as well as reports of government “snooping,” online privacy is starting to become an oxymoron in today’s world. Perhaps trying to cash in on the flood of bad news lately, and some consumer paranoia, AT&T (T) has started offering users a fee-based privacy solution. Subscribers to AT&T’s ultrafast fiber-optic Internet access can now pay an additional $29 a month to avoid being tracked while using it.

The GigaPower service, by default, tracks users as they surf the Web. This is not uncommon, but many Web companies let users opt out of sharing certain information without paying for it. With the GigaPower service, users have to pay the additional fee to opt out of being monitored.

The question is: Would you pay extra to have your online activities kept private? Let us know by offering your feedback.

Intuit Responds to Reader Comments

In the wake of the reader response to our December article on Quicken, I forwarded your comments on to Holly Perez, senior communications manager for Quicken, and Ron Lanesey, chief communications officer at Inuit, and asked if the company cared to comment.

Here is the email response I received from Ms. Perez (edited only for formatting):

Mr. Thorp-

Thanks for your patience this week while I shared the feedback with the Quicken team.

Thank you for sharing the reader comments. Customer feedback is extremely important to us and I have shared each one with our product team. It helps us understand what’s most important to our customers when it comes to managing their money and allows us to improve Quicken. This year, we had our largest beta ever and implemented a year-round beta process to help us continually improve and address what’s on our customers’ minds. We encourage Quicken users who are interested in signing up for future beta tests to visit https://externaltesting.intuit.com/login.html and stay connected.

Mr. Thorp, let us know if there is anything additional I can provide.

We appreciate your loyalty and the candid feedback from our customers to continually improve.

Regards,

Holly Perez
Sr. Manager, Communications
Quicken

In This Issue

This month we continue to build out our “Best of the Web” segment by covering Retirement Planning, Personal Finance and Tax Resources. These categories are peripheral to investing, but each plays a pivotal role in the entire investment and financial planning process. Enjoy!