There are growing concerns over rising cybercrime, especially with regards to credit card hacking, reports Ahmed Kotb Computer hackers have recently made headlines the world over, thanks to rapidly developing technologies that give cyber criminals access to ever-more sophisticated tools. Costing the global economy hundreds of billions of dollars each year, cybercrimes have become a danger to every economy's progress. Hackers attack governments, industries, businesses and persons. Worms and viruses are now considered serious security challenges, and billions are spent on combating such threats. Exacerbating the situation is the fact that it is easy to learn hacking. Just type the word "hacking" into any given search engine, and you will find thousands of websites that teach you how to become a hacker. Among hackers' main targets is the online banking system of financial institutions, such as banks. A weeks-long, ongoing war between Saudi hackers and their Israeli rivals has alerted the region to the risks of cyber-attacks, and the effectiveness of banks' information security efforts. As a result of the ongoing virtual war, started by a hacker who calls himself Omar Habib and claims to be a citizen of Saudi Arabia, thousands of customers' credit cards were hacked. The infiltrators have threatened to publish users' confidential information. Clearly, local banks are more at risk of cyber-attacks than ever. People are wary of using their credit card information online, which means less e-commerce activity. One source at the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), who requested anonymity, said that the bank blocks hundreds of thousands of attempted hacking. "The number of attacks has grown significantly in the past few years," he said, adding that the attacks did not increase in response to the Israeli-Saudi hacking feud. "Banks are carefully secured against infiltrations." Similarly, Ahmed Adam, former manager of the research department at Abu Dhabi Bank, believes it is hard to hack a bank's database, unless the hacker is an insider. "All banks in Egypt abide by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard [PCIDSS] which is updated regularly by security experts," Adam said. But other experts believe it is not that hard for hackers to find vulnerabilities in the information security system of any bank. "Vulnerabilities can be found in banks' firewall configurations, their databases and other security standards that might not be updated to any new methods used by hackers," said Adel Abdel-Moneim, Raya Academy's general manager and information security expert. He added that one of the main vulnerabilities that hackers exploit is the lack of employee awareness. "Hackers might tempt an employee who uses the Internet from his workplace to click on a link that enables them to obtain confidential information such as customer data," Abdel-Moneim said. He added that such links can take the shape of an attractive advertisement. "Awareness of security measurements is very important." No matter how much money is spent on securing data, he added, a breach can always happen, "because no one can fully secure an information system." According to British media outlets, hackers have succeeded in cracking the latest generation of security devices in local banks, which puts Britain's 25 million Internet banking users in jeopardy. The NBE source says hackers worldwide frequently obtain users' credit cards from traders or online shopping websites that do not have high security standards. "All the bank can do is stop service cooperation with traders who prove not to have strong enough data security standards," he noted. Although there is no information available on e- commerce activity in Egypt, it is obvious that it has dropped significantly after the electronic war erupted between Saudi and Israeli hackers. "I am afraid to use my credit card online in the meantime. I have the feeling that the Internet is crowded with hackers who are capable of anything," said Ahmed Hafez, a 28-year-old who used to shop online regularly. Abdel-Moneim suggests that if users want to avoid being hacked, they should start by limiting their online purchases to trusted websites with safe payment methods. They should also try and stick to using credit cards with spending limits, in order to minimise the risks. The Central Bank of Egypt is responsible for protecting local banks from hackers, and its information security department is currently intensifying its security measures, according to recent media reports.
