Factom and the Blockchain Could Have Prevented Fidelity Bank Hack
Fidelity Bank is on the list of a growing number of institutions facing website defacement and theft of customer data. The entire financial sector is a target for hackers, as most of these institutions have poor security implementations on both their website frontends and their database backends. “Hack for Trump,” as the hacker collective responsible for this attack calls itself, demands a US$30,000 ransom from its victims.
Also read: Banks Could be Working on Blockchain-Based Digital Vault Project
Fidelity Bank Data Obtained and Website Hacked
As if the Fidelity Bank website hack itself wasn’t bad enough, the “Hack for Trump” collective also managed to get their hands on sensitive data. No customer financial data has been breached, but confidential data about Fidelity Bank itself and a few hundred internal emails have fallen into the wrong hands.
Fidelity Bank quickly issued a press release regarding this hack and breach of confidential data, trying to put the blame on the company hosting its website. Furthermore, the bank announced that its website is only used for general customer and marketing inquiries, holding minimal customer information.
Judging from the information provided by Fidelity Bank, only one of the web servers associated with the company hosting the bank’s website has been attacked. All of the servers responsible for storing and securing customer details were not affected by Hacking for Trump, which should put customers’ minds at ease for the time being.
Regarding the ransom demanded by the hacker collective, Fidelity Bank said they will not pay the demanded sum. In fact, the bank has reported the breach to law enforcement, and the investigation is still pending. Until the responsible parties have been identified, Fidelity Bank will actively monitor all network traffic and step up their security game.
The Hack for Trump collective seems to align itself with US presidential candidate Donald Trump. To be more precise, the demanded sum of US$30,000 as ransom would have been used to fund Donald Trump’s election campaign. Apparently, the hacker collective feels Donald Trump “is the only candidate who can restore America to its former glory”.
It is saddening to see that security improvements only become a topic of debate after it is too late; Fidelity Bank has a responsibility to both customers and staff and has to take adequate measures to keep all information confidential.
Factom & Blockchain Technology Can Prevent Hacks
There are multiple solutions in existence to prevent these types of attacks by hackers and other hoodlums. Blockchain technology, which powers the Bitcoin protocol, offers a ton of unique security features that can be implemented in a swift manner. Or how about Factom, a protocol built on top of blockchain technology, which can easily manage data and keep records?
Most of the focus regarding blockchain technology is on the financial side of things, making this innovative solution a perfect match for improving existing security implementations. In recent years, there has been a lot of focus on adapting blockchain technology to suit the needs of financial institutions, and multiple projects are being developed right now.
Factom does things at little differently than Bitcoin, even though it uses the same blockchain technology. That being said, Factom keeps records — in the form of metadata — on its own blockchain, anchoring these records to the Bitcoin blockchain. Millions of records can be stored with one hash, making Factom a very efficient and secure platform.
Both blockchain technology and Factom could have prevented the confidential data from being accessed by Hacking for Trump. Luckily, no customer details were — allegedly — affected during this attack, but that doesn’t mean Fidelity Bank is out of the woods just yet. Now that the institution is looking to increase security, there is no better time than now to look at either blockchain technology or Factom.
Do you think the blockchain could make banks safer? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: Compass Cayman
Images courtesy of Los Angeles Times, Fidelity Bank
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