Search This Blog

Powered by Blogger.

Blog Archive

Labels

Showing posts with label Morgan Stanley. Show all posts

Social Engineering Attacks Resulted in Compromise of Morgan Stanley Client Accounts

 

Morgan Stanley's wealth and asset management division, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, says that social engineering attacks have compromised some of its customers' accounts. 

Vishing (also known as voice phishing) is a social engineering attack in which scammers impersonate a reputable business (in this case Morgan Stanley) over the phone to persuade their targets to expose or pass over sensitive information such as banking or login credentials. 

According to a notice sent to impacted clients, a threat actor portraying Morgan Stanley acquired access to their accounts "on or around February 11, 2022" after deceiving them into submitting their Morgan Stanley Online account information. The attacker also electronically transferred money to their accounts after successfully compromising their own accounts. 

The alert reads, "As you are aware, on or around February 11, 2022, you were contacted by a bad actor claiming to be with Morgan Stanley. The bad actor was able to obtain information relating to your Morgan Stanley Online account, subsequently accessing this account and initiating unauthorized Zelle payments." 

A Morgan Stanley spokesperson told BleepingComputer that "there was no data breach or information leak from Morgan Stanley." The Morgan Stanley division also stated that all affected customers' accounts had been disabled, adding that its systems "remain secure." 

The company explained, "This compromise was not a result of any action of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and our systems remain secure. Your Morgan Stanley Wealth Management account has been flagged to our Customer Call Center so that any callers into the Call Center will be prompted with additional verification. Your previous Morgan Stanley Online account was also disabled." 

Morgan Stanley advises customers not to answer calls from numbers they don't recognise as a way to protect themselves from vishing attacks and other sorts of social engineering frauds. 

"Also, be guarded when providing your personal data by phone. Make sure the person asking for the information is from a legitimate organization and is who they claim to be. You can always hang up and call the organization back using a phone number found through a trusted source – such as the company’s official website or perhaps a financial statement," the company further recommended. 

Morgan Stanley announced a data breach in July 2021 when the Clop ransomware group hacked into the Accellion FTA server of Guidehouse, one of Morgan Stanley's third-party providers, and stole personal information belonging to its clients. 

Morgan Stanley is a significant investment banking and global financial services corporation based in the United States that offers investment banking, securities, wealth management, and investment management services around the world.  

Morgan Stanley to Pay $60M to Resolve Data Security Lawsuit

 

Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $60 million in a preliminary settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed against the company on Friday, according to Reuters, for allegedly neglecting to secure customers' personal data before retiring outdated information technology. 

The settlement offer awaits the approval of New York District Judge Analisa Torres. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of around 15 million Morgan Stanley clients in response to two separate occurrences that occurred in 2016 and 2019. 

Morgan Stanley decommissioned two wealth management data centres in the first incident. Before removing the unencrypted computer equipment from the centres, the bank's vendor, Triple Crown, was tasked with deleting or destroying it. Even after it had left the vendor's control, this device was later discovered to contain data. According to Morgan Stanley, the vendor removed the devices and resold them to a third party without permission. 

As part of a hardware refresh programme, the second incident entailed the replacement and removal of branch office equipment. The bank was unable to discover some of these devices, which could have retained previously deleted information on discs in an unencrypted version due to a software error. 

Customers will receive a minimum of two years of fraud insurance coverage as part of the proposed settlement, as well as compensation for up to $10,000 in related out-of-pocket losses. The bank also stated that it would improve its data security procedures. 

Morgan Stanley maintains that there was no wrongdoing on its part, even though it is seeking a settlement. In a move to dismiss the complaint filed in August 2021, the bank said that despite extensive investigations and ongoing surveillance over the years, it has not discovered a single instance of data misuse generated from any of its own sources. Morgan Stanley was fined $60 million in civil penalties in October 2020 for failing to adequately supervise the decommissioning of its data centres in 2016. 

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency imposed the penalty after discovering that the bank: failed to effectively assess or address risks associated with decommissioning its hardware; failed to adequately assess the risk of subcontracting the decommissioning work, including exercising adequate due diligence in selecting a vendor and monitoring its performance; and failed to maintain appropriate inventory of customer data stored on the decommissioned hardware devices.