ohomen171's Journey Through Life: July 2024

Thursday, July 4, 2024

500,000 San Francisco Bay Families Find Their Finacial Life Held Hostage By A Ransomware Attack

There is a huge local problem here in the San Francisco Bay Area right now that has relevance all over the world. Patelco is a credit union that serves over 500,000 customers throughout the Bay Area. Some cybercriminals have taken control of the computer system for the credit union. They are demanding an undisclosed ransom (Probably millions of dollars) to release control of the computer system. If you do your banking with this credit union, you have huge problems. You cannot look at your deposit accounts and credit card accounts. If you go to purchase with your debit card, it will not work. Checks written to pay bills will not be cleared properly, if at all. We all have critical bills like electricity bills, water bills, etc. that must be paid or there will be cut-offs of electricity, natural gas, and water. Most of us have credit card bills, auto loans, consumer loans, etc. If these are not paid on time, one's credit rating will suffer. One's car loans could go into default. One's home loan could default. Repossession of cars and houses could follow. This is one of a person's worst nightmares. The first question that we need to ask is "What went wrong at Patelco Credit Union?" In simple terms, an employee was not being alert and attentive. They clicked on what looked like an innocent link. The criminals were let into the bank's computer. As a matter of interest, from time to time I get a text message that appears to come from the U.S. Postal Service. It claims that a package is awaiting my pickup. I am directed to click on a link. I do not fall for this one. Elena gets questionable links from time to time. She always comes to me and asks me if it is bonafide. Sometimes these criminals use more sophisticated methods than links to break into a computer system. I will leave those to the cybersecurity experts. The second question is how do you as a person or family protect yourself from a disaster like this? A simple pearl of wisdom from long ago applies here: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." Have a backup financial institution and a high-limit credit card not tied to any bank. Also learn a lesson that I have learned from many dear Asian friends. Keep cash in the house. The third question is what does Patelco Credit Union due to solve this crisis? Let us hope that they were smart enough to buy insurance against such a cyber-attack. Law enforcement agencies criticize insurers who quickly pay the criminals. It incentivizes others to launch these attacks. I hope that Patelco had a cyber-attack contingency plan. In my mind, an organization should resist paying this ransom. Sometimes a large investment must be made to rebuild a compromised computer system and make it more secure. Several other major credit unions in the Bay Area could step up and provide these 500,000 depositors with services while the computer system is being rebuilt.