Report Says Fake Fire Marshals Find Easy Pickings at CUs, Banks

Security specialists using network penetration, phishing, fake phone calls and simply walking in dressed like a fire marshal or exterminator were able to walk out of credit union and bank branches with sensitive data nearly every time, according to a new report.

TraceSecurity, a Baton Rouge-based provider of IT risk assessment and security compliance solutions to more than 800 banks and credit unions, said it found that 95% of the sensitive data behind those walls could have been robbed on average in 30 minutes or less, representing personal identities of tens of millions of consumers.

The company (www.tracesecurity.com) is basing its claim on its own experience over the past five years. The report said its results are from a core group of its own customers, ranging up to $2.7 billion in assets and located in 48 different states.

“It takes only one branch location for all customers' sensitive data to be at risk, and recent data breaches have shown these losses can amount to billions of dollars–a huge cost for what's usually a small, avoidable error," said Trace Security CTO and co-founder Jim Stickley.

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