Frost Bank announced it has suffered a data breach that exposed check images

On Friday, Frost Bank announced that it has suffered a data breach that exposed check images, crooks could use them to forge checks.

Frost Bank announced on Friday that it has suffered a data breach that exposed check images.

The bank is a subsidiary of Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc., its staff discovered an unauthorized access to its systems containing images of checks.

Attackers compromised a third-party lockbox software program, in this way they were able to access the images of checks stored electronically in the database.

“In March 2018, Frost detected unauthorized access into a third-party lockbox software program that allowed unauthorized users to view and copy images of checks stored electronically in the image archive.” reads the security advisory published by the company.

“The identified incident did not impact other Frost systems. We have stopped the unauthorized access, and have reported the incident to and are cooperating with law-enforcement authorities.”

The lockbox services are normally used by customers to send payments to a central post office box, once the bank will receive the payments it will credit them to a business’s account.

According to Frost Bank, its systems weren’t impacted by the security breach.

The bad news is that crooks once obtained the images could use them to forge checks.

“Information from the accessed images can be used to forge checks.” continues the advisory.

According to Frost Bank, the unauthorized access was limited to one software program serving about 470 commercial customers who use the electronic lockbox,

The company confirmed it stopped the identified unauthorized access once discovered the breach.

Law enforcement is investigating the case, while Frost Bank hired an unnamed cybersecurity firm to investigate the security breach,

“At Frost, we care deeply about taking care of our customers and protecting their information, and we regret that this situation has occurred. We are working very hard to make things right,” Frost Chairman and CEO Phil Green said in a statement.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Frost Bank, data breach)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.