The oldest Bank in the world, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, has its headquarters in Siena, Italy.  It was originally formed in 1472 as The Monte di Pietà, or Monte Pio, to give loans to the poor from collected donations, and it continues to operate today, making it the oldest bank still in existence.

Back in those days, there were plenty of thieves that wanted to get their hands on the cash stored in the bank vaults and today is no different.  The main thing that has changed is that the attacks have now moved from physical banks to online customer accounts.

In Australia, one bank in particular has borne the brunt of a huge number of online phishing attacks over many years and was receiving constant reports from customers who had experienced having their credentials stolen. This resulted in considerable financial loss for the bank, an impact on brand reputation and aggravated customers. Phishing sites would stay active for long stretches of time, therefore creating more of a risk for customers to fall victim to the attack. In March 2012, the bank signed up to a suite of FraudWatch International products and services, including: Anti-Phishing, Brand Abuse, Anti-Malware, Social Media and Mobile Apps.

Over recent years, the FraudWatch team have taken down over 12,000 phishing incidents that were targeting this client.  FraudWatch International has successfully maintained a median takedown time of 2 hours and 53 minutes over the last 5 years for this customer.

The quick take down times have had a direct result on the number of phishing attacks that our client has experienced.  There has been a significant reduction in the number of customers falling victim to phishing attacks and the criminals have gradually been deterred from targeting this client, as we have seen a slow decline in phishing incidents per month.

Below is a chart showing the level of Phishing attacks over the past few years:

It is important that businesses don’t become complacent, just because their phishing incidents have reduced. We recommend to our clients, that they continue with any services they have signed up for, so that if attacks occur in the future, FraudWatch International will be on-hand to ensure that the impact to their business is minimal.