CIBC FirstCaribbean moving swiftly to protect accounts amid attack

CIBC FirstCaribbean has sought to assure customers that it has been aggressively warding off an attack on a small range of its Visa debit cards.

In a statement issued on Friday, the bank disclosed that the latest attack had been contained to less than one per cent of local cardholders.

According to CIBC First Caribbean’s Chief Information Officer Esan Peters, the attack stemmed from the breach at a local logistics provider earlier this year, when fraudsters were able to get hold of legitimate, CIBC FirstCaribbean card numbers – which have since been cancelled – and client information stored by that company.

“Using that information, fraudsters were able to extrapolate other potential card numbers in the same range and launch this recent series of attacks. However, the bank’s security systems have been keeping the fraudsters at bay,” he said.

Peters has assured customers that the bank’s security systems have been repelling the attacks but added that as a precautionary measure, cards that have been targeted have had to be blocked from transactions..

“To protect our clients’ accounts, we had to move very swiftly to proactively block some cards when our fraud monitoring systems detected these unauthorised transaction attempts.

“Unfortunately, we were not able to reach out to everyone blocked quickly enough to advise them of the measures we have had to take, and we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience to our clients in those instances. We know this would have caused considerable concern among our clients, but it could not have been helped; it was done out of an abundance of caution in what has had to be an aggressive series of moves to fend off the fraudsters,” the senior bank official said.

Peters added the bank had a better handle on tracking the attacks and stopping them, so the functionality of blocked cards has been restored. However, he urged clients to implement security measures to protect themselves further.

“We are advising our clients to go log on to their online banking or mobile banking and find the ‘Card Security Settings’ on the associated account; use the ‘Edit’ feature and then block ‘Online Transactions’ and ‘International Transactions’. In this way, our clients will still have use of their accounts here in Barbados at Point of Sale and at ABMs,” he advised.

Peters added that the bank will replace the cards currently held by the affected subset of clients over a period of time, to further minimise any possibility of the fraudsters being able to launch attacks in the future. He also advised any clients who were still experiencing issues with their cards, or who are travelling in the immediate future, to contact the bank’s call centre immediately.

“Card fraud and fraud, in general, is a fact of life, especially in today’s digital world, but that doesn’t mean we will give in to the fraudsters. We give our clients our firm commitment that we will do whatever is in our power to keep their accounts protected from these types of attacks,” he promised.(BT/PR)