“The management of cyber risk in banks is much more than an IT [information technology] discussion. We know from experience that the five most efficient cyber defenders are basic to any risk management solution. They are anticipation, education, detection, reaction and resilience,” Mr Cassar said.

Following Mr Cassar’s opening speech, Daniela Bagnaschi, Head of Data Management and Business Intelligence at the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), drew ties between the MFSA’s vision and plans for risk mitigation in the cyberspace and elaborated on the crucial aspects of the triad comprising People, Process and Technology, as well as its impact on the cyber resilience framework of regulated entities.

“This event was an important one as it emphasised the need for wider stakeholder involvement in raising awareness on the various cyber risks in the banking industry, but also the financial services sector in general. Likewise, the involvement of all stakeholders is required in the mitigation of these ever-growing and evolving risks,” said Karol Gabarretta, Secretary-General of the MBA.

The association tagged the event as “successful” and one that “achieved its aims”. More than 100 participants attended the conference.

The post MBA calls for increased cybercrime awareness first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

“BOV is working relentlessly to restore its full payment services as soon as possible. Further developments will be communicated to customers,” the bank said when announcing the restored SEPA payment services.

On Wednesday, BOV shut down services after they learnt that the bank’s systems had been compromised in a cyberattack that falsified transfers valued at €13m. The bank restored some services on Thursday morning.

Unknown sources, questionable restoring of funds

At this point, it is still too early to say who stands behind the attack and the bank says it is making its best efforts in related to recovering the funds, according to a Times of Malta report citing Kenneth Farrugia, Chief Business Development Officer at BOV.

It is difficult to say, however, when the funds will be restored, and whether they can be restored in their entirety, according to another Times of Malta report.

Due to the complexity of international transactions, the bank expects not to be able to retrieve all the money falsified in the cyberattack. In Mr Farrugia said although they can see which banks the money went to, it is not “simply a matter of asking the banks for the money to be reversed”, the Times of Malta reported.

However, Mr Farrugia said that the accounts of clients remained untouched. He also added that no breach of personal data of the bank’s clients had taken place.

The post BOV restores SEPA payment, works hard post-attack first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The most common criminal activity last year comprise of theft from cryptocurrency exchanges. Hackers stole more than $950m (€840m+), a 3.6 times growth as compared to 2017, the report finds.

Users and investors also fell for fraudulent ICOs, phoney exchange hacks, and Ponzi schemes in 2018, losing at least $725m (€640m+) in cryptocurrency. “A cryptocurrency exit scam is a confidence game where the promoters of a cryptocurrency ICO or other venture fails to execute — or executives of exchanges say they cannot return users’ assets — and then abscond with the money. This finding indicates that a new breed of cybercriminals is shifting their techniques from hacking to insider jobs,” the press release announcing the report says.

Despite the downturn in the prices of many cryptocurrencies, the total American dollar value of falsified tokens was higher in 2018 than the preceding year. According to the report, this talks of the sophistication of cybercriminals, as well as the increasing need for better online security.

The report also compiles the coming wave of global regulatory enforcement and emerging money laundering schemes “By 2020 most modern economies — including the US, EU and G20 as well as Gibraltar, Bermuda and Malta — will have deployed strict cryptocurrency AML and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations,” the press statement says. However, the report notes that cryptocurrency laundering activities can bypass these regulations by obscuring the source of funds with new and innovative money mixers, unregulated crypto-to-exchanges, and privacy coins.

“Cryptocurrency criminal activity continues to evolve and accelerate. Fortunately, pending global legislation will hamstring many criminals, global gangs, and terrorist groups by greatly reducing their opportunities to launder,” says Dave Jevans, CEO of CipherTrace and co-chair of the Cryptocurrency Working Group at the APWG.org. “These tough new laws will drive bad actors to not only innovate but also flock to jurisdictions with weak regulatory oversight, as we have shown in earlier research. CipherTrace’s blockchain intelligence and anti-money laundering technology helps exchanges, financial services firms, regulators, and law enforcement work together to create trust in the crypto ecosystem,” he adds.

CipherTrace develops cryptocurrency anti-money laundering, cryptocurrency forensics, and blockchain threat intelligence solutions. Its CipherTrace Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Report is published quarterly. CipherTrace was founded in 2015 by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs involved in cybersecurity, eCrime, payments, banking, encryption, and virtual currencies. The US Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology (S&T) and DARPA initially funded CipherTrace, and it is backed by leading Silicon Valley venture capital investors.

The post Crypto scams, theft increase in 2018, says AML report first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.