Last update - 00:00 25/01/2008
Hackers steal Bank Leumi client passwords
By Ram Dagan
Bank Leumi said Wednesday it foiled an attempt by hackers to defraud it and its clients through phishing (identity theft). The hackers created a dummy Web site purporting to be the bank's and asked customers for secret information. The police are investigating the affair.
Leumi's suspicions were aroused after several clients phoned to complain about emails they had received from an anonymous source purporting to be the bank.
One such email asked a client to enter the listed Web site through the attached link and update her personal information. Customers who obediently clicked on the link found themselves at a Web site that looked like Leumi's home page.
The Leumi customers entered their user names and passwords, which the phishers could then use to enter the bank's real Web site and do as they pleased with the customer accounts.
Bank Leumi, however, discovered the phishy site, which was being run through a server in Brazil, and managed to get it deleted from the Web. The bank also complained to the Bank of Israel and to the police, who are searching for the hackers. The bank admitted that by the time the sham site was deleted, several dozen customers had fed in their secret information.