Business · The Register
MFA-optional banks leave safe doors (and accounts) wide open for thieves to pillage
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Financial institutions are putting their clients at risk in the name of convenience.
Key facts
- According to a 2019 article from Microsoft, MFA prevents 99.9 percent of attacks on your accounts
- However, the reporter wasn’t laughing back in May when professional thieves invaded their 84-year-old mother’s entire financial life and managed to make off with $30,000 from her bank accounts alone
- According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you have 60 days from the date of a bank statement to dispute any transactions
- Indeed, while some banks such as PNC require MFA, others such as Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, and Citibank leave it as optional
Summary
OPINION the reporter write a weekly column called PWNED, about how poor security practices can lead to serious damage. However, the reporter wasn’t laughing back in May when professional thieves invaded their 84-year-old mother’s entire financial life and managed to make off with $30,000 from her bank accounts alone. One day in May, Mom got a call from the institution that runs her retirement savings account, who had identified a suspicious transaction and asked her if it was legit. Then she checked her bank account at a different institution to see if it was compromised and found thousands of dollars transferred out of her checking and savings accounts.