Fergie's Tech Blog

UK: Security Flaw Exposes 3M HSBC Online Accounts

Bobbie Johnson and Ian Cobain write in The Guardian (UK):

One of Britain's biggest high street banks has left millions of online bank accounts exposed to potential fraud because of a glaring security loophole, the Guardian has learned.

The defect in HSBC's online banking system means that 3.1 million UK customers registered to use the service have been vulnerable to attack for at least two years. One computing expert called the lapse "scandalous".

The discovery was made by a group of researchers at Cardiff University, who found that anyone exploiting the flaw was guaranteed to be able to break into any account within nine attempts.

posted by Fergie @ 8/09/2006 08:41:00 PM