Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) lost $400,000 in a major cybertheft incident. The incident happened in Burlington, Washington, where local city employers and residents were warned of the theft, and asked to check their bank accounts.
It’s speculated that the security breach happened from an infiltration of the government account that was used to pay the account’s town workers. Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) first learned of the attack, when another bank across the country questioned the unusual number of account transfers.
The city used the account to pay their employees via direct deposit, and now the bank is reminding the employees to carefully monitor their accounts over the next few days. The bank account is also currently frozen.
The town’s administrator, Bryan Harrison, expressed his concern for this incident saying ,”Any time that more than $400,000 actually moves out of a city of Burlington account, there can’t possibly be a joke involved. It is actually very chilling.”
The case is still in the developing stages, and Harrison admits that they don’t know the full exposure of the situation. It’s speculated that the theft involved computer hacking, and police are conducting computer forensics. Right now the U.S. Secret Service is working with other government officials to investigate the situation.
A breach like this could happen to any bank, hopefully they will find the thieves and take appropriate actions. In this day and age of modern technology, you can never be too secure. I’m not sure what will happen next, but they may have to find a way to better their security. Although it wouldn’t be surprising if this incident drove many customers to leave the bank, lets hope they can find a way to renew their security and save their image from this incident. Let’s also hope that the local police and officials are keeping their eye on nearby banks, to make sure it doesn’t happen elsewhere.
