Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

PIN codes cracked and 285 million data breaches

Chris Skinner Author Avatar
by

Wired's blog just noted that Bryan Sartin, director of investigative response for Verizon Business, is saying the backbone of bank security - the PIN - is broken by hackers. 

In fact, he reckons, its' been blown apart.

"We're seeing entirely new attacks that a year ago were thought to be
only academically possible," says Sartin.  "What we
see now is people going right to the source ... and stealing the
encrypted PIN blocks and using complex ways to un-encrypt the PIN
blocks."

Grab a copy of Verizon's full report, and take note of their headline:

"285 Million Records: (2008) A Great Year for Data Thieves"

"Our forensics team analyzed thousands of data points from
investigations around the world – including many never publicly
reported – and found that in 2008 alone, more than 285 million records
were compromised. That’s more than the previous four years combined.

"The 2009 Verizon Business Data Breach Investigations Report offers an
objective view of these data breaches, including analysis that we
believe will be helpful to the planning and security efforts of our
readers.

"Here are just a few of our findings:

  • 91% of all compromised records were attributed to organized criminal groups
  • 99.6% of records were compromised from servers and applications
  • 74% resulted from external sources
  • 69% were discovered by a 3rd party
  • 67% were aided by significant errors
  • 32% implicated business partners"
Chris Skinner Author Avatar

Chris M Skinner

Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...

Fintech expert Chris Skinner: countries need digital transformation to remain competitive

Digital Transformation Programme

Learn directly from from one of the most influential people in technology, gain insights from the world's most innovative companies, and build a global network.

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on FinTech 2022

Chris Skinner
Commentator, CEO of The Finanser and best-selling author at The Finanser

Thinkers360 Thought Leader

Contact Me

Best Financial Services Blogger

Chris’s latest book

Chris Skinner’s ‘Digital For Good’ Book Launch Event – CFTE

Global Awards

Chris Skinner - Financial Markets Advisor of the Year - The Finanser - UK 2023

Best CEO of the Year UK 2022

Best Digital Finance Provider of the Year UK 2022

Best Financial Markets Adviser of the Year UK 2022

Portal to the Knowledge Base of the Financial Services Club UK 2022

Financial Markets Advisor of the Year UK 2022

Corporate America Today Annual Awards

Best Financial Markets Adviser of the Year UK 2022

Portal to the Knowledge Base of the Financial Services Club UK 2022

Financial Markets Advisor of the Year UK 2022

Nominee of MAD33 2021

Kids creating the future bank | TEDxAthens

Join me on Linkedin

Follow Me on Twitter!

UK’s most influential person in technology

Captain Cake and the Candy Crew

Captain Cake Winner of a Golden Mom’s Choice Award

TWO-TIME WINNER OF A MOM’S CHOICE GOLD AWARD!

TheNextWeb – #tnw

Learn more about Chris

About Chris Skinner

Presentation at ZBP, September 2020, Warsaw, Poland

Alex at the Financial Services

Gaping Void's Hugh MacLeod worked with the Finanser

What is the future?

Learn more