The Financial Times has weighed in with a wide-angle view of the current state of the hackers vs. banks war. It concludes that the thieves may be winning. One experts estimates criminals took about $40 million directly from bank accounts this year, "primarily targeting the small and mid-sized businesses that are themselves customers of small and mid-sized banks." 

We've noted that small banks and their customers appear to be sadly fertile targets, given that their security efforts tend to lag the really big institutions. It's surprising how many small business fall prey to the same phishing techniques that bedevil consumers. The costs of entry into this illicit business may be declining unfortunately. Cisco says that one of the main programs that thieves use can be had for just $700. This is troubling. Small banks and businesses have enough to worry about. It looks now like 2-factor authentication is not faring well against the bad guys.

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