Financial institutions continue to battle cyberattacks, particularly hackers who tap into the fiscal electronic freeway used to move large sums of money for real estate deal closings and other large-price-tag transactions.
For the past six years, the financial sector has been ranked No. 1 as the most cyberattacked industry. In 2020, attacks against banks and other financial institutions climbed 238% (with 19,369 cases of wire fraud reported by victims of real estate transaction scams to the Internet Crime Complaint Center), followed by an additional 118% increase in 2021, according to Aunalytics, a secured managed service provider.
In 2021, the Modern Bank Heists 4.0 threat report from VM Ware Carbon Black, a cloud-to-endpoint protection security provider, found that 57% of surveyed financial institutions revealed an increase in wire fraud.
Wire transfers facilitate fast and convenient direct digital money transactions between two bank accounts. To make a wire transfer, the sender communicates with his or her bank, provides the name and number of the account funds will be drawn from, and the amount of the transfer, along with the recipient’s name, bank account number and the recipient’s American Banking Association routing number — and in some cases, the recipient’s bank address and phone number.
“Those trying to rob wire transfer funds are smart, subtle and often demonstrate a high degree of sophistication,” said Irshad Hirani, vice president and…
