Online thieves target school district

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and New York State Police are investigating an attempt last month to steal about $3.8 million from the Duanesburg Central School District in Schenectady County, New York, reports InformationWeek.

Online thieves made a series of unauthorised funds transfers from the school district's NBT Bank account to an overseas bank between 18 and 22 December last year.

The third transfer during this period was flagged as abnormal activity by the bank, which began blocking pending transactions after the school district confirmed the transfers had not been authorised. Working with foreign banks, NBT Bank recovered about $2.5 million out of $3 million stolen during the four-day period, but two previous unauthorised transactions were discovered.

Minutes after an armed bank heist in Calumet City last week, the three suspects were caught at the home of one of their parents in neighbouring Dolton, with the help of GPS technology, writes the Chicago Tribune.

The masks, getaway vehicles and meet-up location had all been mapped out earlier, but a relatively new feature in bank security - credit-card-size GPS devices hidden in stolen cash - led police almost instantly to the suspects, according to an FBI affidavit.

FBI and banking officials said they believed it was the first time the technology, similar to what is increasingly used in cellphones and other devices, had been deployed to solve a bank robbery in the Chicago region.

Financial institutions need to ensure future growth strategies by embracing innovative IT and technology solutions, a research organisation has urged, according to Bobsguide.

Richard De Lotto, principal research analyst at Gartner, warned banks that they need to think tactically about IT and how it is deployed.

Organisations should integrate technology with strategic plans rather than just viewing solutions as short-term, money-saving exercises, the researcher explained. The comments follow the publication of a report by Gartner which showed that half of the banks questioned will not have a budget or programme dedicated to technology in place by 2013.