trb (07/15/82)
There's a description of a cute EFT fraud scheme on the cover of MISWeek this week (14-July). The basic idea is that there is a company called SWIFT (a real company) that does electronic funds transfer over encrypted phone lines with bizzarro checksums. The lines are unencrypted at the bank sites, but it's not likely that a crook can generate the coded checksums. The scam is that a crook starts fiddling with transmitted messages by altering a character here and there. First a low percentage of the messages, and over a course of days, a higher percentage. Firms that deal with the bank being enscammed start getting upset. Eventually, after our crook friend has created all this ruckus, he generates some bogus transactions (with bad checksums) to his own account a few minutes before closing time on Friday, the transactions go thru (because the brass at the bank is under huge pressure), the money is re-EFT'd far away, and the crook is home free. The MISWeek story explains that the key is the violation of a basic rule of the SWIFT system: "Do not pay the money if the message fails to authenticate." As we all well know, it doesn't always seem to be in your best interests to play by the rules. The story in MISWeek is more detailed and it seems quite possible and scary. By the way, MISWeek is free, and not bad for the money. Andy Tannenbaum Bell Labs Whippany, NJ (201) 386-6491
trb (07/15/82)
By popular demand, here is more information on MISWeek, the tabloid which ran the EFT fraud article I discussed yesterday. MISWeek is free, which in itself doesn't make it worth getting. It's not IBM chauvinist, which makes it better than some of the more popular rags. It's greatest feature is that it has a news summary on page 2 which has paragraph-long summaries of all the stories, so you can scan that page and throw it away if you don't have the time or the inclination to read the rest, and you still have an idea of what was in the issue. To apply for your free subscription, write to the address below, describing yourself as some flavor of DP professional. MIS WEEK Circulation Dept. P.O. Box 1003 Manasquan, NJ 08736 Andy Tannenbaum Bell Labs Whippany, NJ (201) 386-6491