Bank currency services hit by Travelex site attack

[Dennis Donovan]

Source: BBC

Travel money services for several UK banks are still down after foreign currency seller Travelex took its site offline to deal with a cyber attack.

On Thursday evening, Travelex said it had taken down its site to contain "the virus and protect data".

That has affected Sainsbury's Bank, Barclays and HSBC, among others, which all use the Travelex platform.

There is no indication when the Travelex website will be restored.

The company said it has been working on the issue since the software virus attack on New Year's Eve.

A number of banks depend on the Travelex platform to provide online travel money services.

The company delivers the foreign currency to stores for customers to collect, as well as operating the software that is used to buy the travel money.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50985404?ns_source=twitter&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ocid=socialflow_twitter

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...and so it begins?

[getagrip_already]

1. This is a well worn pattern at this point.

The attack likely started at least 6 months ago, and probably much longer back. The attackers were in their network for months.

What they have likely done is attacked backup systems so there are no effective or accessible backups. They also set off encryption bombs that were timed to go off in unison.

Then the ransom demands arrive.

This is what the company is dealing with. As they try to rebuild servers and re-install applications, they have no access to databases or historical data. There may even be other systems sitting patiently to corrupt any new servers as they start up.

This has happened before, but those companies got lucky. The attacks weren't complete. A work in progress.

The attackers have surely gotten better.

Oh, and some of them are Iranian backed entities. Some North Korean. Some Chinese proxies. Some russian proxies.

[MineralMan]

2. Funny currency exchange story

Before I went to my base in Turkey, while in the USAF, I knew I'd be overnighting in Istanbul before flying to Samsun on the Black Sea. So, I went to the local Bank of America branch in my small town about 10 days before my flight. I asked them to get me $50 worth of Turkish Lira, which they could do from a larger branch and have it delivered to the bank. The exchange rate at the time was 9 Lira to $1. So, I'd be getting 450 Turkish lira, and would pay a small handling charge for the exchange.

I thought I was all done and would have the Turkish currency before I had to leave. A couple of days later, the bank called me and told me the foreign currency was there and that I owed the bank $450. I suppose that was the first time that teller had ever handled a money exchange.

So, I went to the branch and explained that US$50 translated to 450 Turkish Lira, not the other way around. The teller told with me that I was wrong. I finally had to get the branch manager to come over and explain it to the teller. Small town bank branches are useless for anything other than making deposits to your account, or withdrawals, apparently.

Anyhow, I got my 450 Lira, so I could pay for a cab, for tips, and to have a little spending money for my one day on my own in Instanbul.