With shoppers set to spend almost £1billion online this Cyber Monday, concerns over making purchases securely were in focus as a mobile payments firm moved to reassure over the impact of cyber-attacks that occurred in 2009-2010, and calls were made for ‘cyber audits.’
Paysafe Group today said it was confident that data stolen through the cyber-attacks around five or six years ago could not be used to access existing customer details for its Neteller or Skrill accounts.
The company, formerly known as Optimal Payments, said that third-party attackers had managed to obtain limited account details from 3.6 million Neteller account accounts and basic personal details relating to 4.2 million Skrill accounts – then known as Moneybrokers.
Secure: With shoppers set to spend almost £1billion online this Cyber Monday, concerns over making purchases securely were in focus as a mobile payments firm moved to reassure over impact of cyber-attacks
But Paysafe said that less than 2 per cent of those accounts were active in the six months to November 1 and that the data acquired did not include passwords or customer card data, or bank account information.
Paysafe’s shares fell almost 18 per cent when it initially confirmed that a ‘small number’ of details were in the public domain at the end of October. Paysafe shares today added 0.5p to 360.5p.
Paysafe’s disclosure came at the same time as Legal & General Investment Management voiced concerns over board awareness of cyber security risks within companies.
The investment firm has called for greater collective action from the government and major investors to help companies and says ‘now is the time’ for compulsory cyber audits to be introduced.
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David Patt, senior analyst, Corporate Governance and Public Policy at LGIM, said: ‘From an investor perspective we believe a focus of governance is the protection of the assets we are investing in – both physical and human.
‘Cyber security is a significant risk to our investee companies. It is incumbent of us to discuss how company boards are managing cyber security and their digital infrastructure throughout the corporate year.
We are concerned that many responses we receive to this major corporate risk are insufficient. Boards need to be more aware of their operational environment and emerging threats to their business. Simply put, it can affect a company’s value.’
Big interest: Cyber security issues have been a major focus since telecoms group TalkTalk revealed on October 21 that sensitive personal data of millions of its customers could have been accessed by hackers
Cyber security issues have been a major focus over the past few months after telecoms group TalkTalk revealed on October 21 that sensitive personal data of millions of its customers could have been accessed by hackers who had demanded a ransom from the firm.
It was first feared that data from all 4 million of Talk Talk’s customers had been at risk but later it emerged 157,000 people were affected. Hacked customers had up to eight items of personal information stolen.
In a recent interview, Kobus Paulsen – non-executive chairman and founder of cyber security firm Cognosec AB – said: ‘With the crime climate that we have today, where teenagers have the ability to hold large corporation’s data ransom, regulatory requirements are really the bare minimum of protection.’
He added: ‘The simple fact is that every organisation, from the largest enterprises, to the smallest online business need some degree of cyber security.
‘Moreover, as cybercriminals continue to create new methods of attack, demand is constantly being generated for innovate methods of defence.’
Cognosec, which is soon to be listed on Nasdaq’s Stockholm-based First North alternate index, has former British home secretary David Blunket on its board as a non-executive director.