Tesco Bank fined £16.4million for failing to protect customers during cyber attack
Thousands of Tesco Bank customers had their online accounts frozen for up to 48 hours in November 2016 after fraudsters stole a collective £2.26million
TESCO BANK has been fined £16.4million by the financial watchdog after it failed to protect its current account holders from a cyber attack in November 2016.
At the time, thousands of Tesco Bank customers had their online accounts frozen for up to 48 hours after fraudsters stole a collective £2.26million.
2. Reset your passwords: Hackers could have access to your accounts so lock them out again by changing passwords.
Make sure they are strong, between eight to 10 random characters, with lower and uppercase letters, numbers and symbols if possible.
Try not to use duplicate passwords as if one address has been breached, many accounts could be.
You can use a password management tool if, like most people, you struggle to keep track of passwords for multiple accounts.
There are dozens to choose from: some are free, while some you have to pay for.
3. Check your accounts: Look for and log any payments on your accounts that you did not make.
4. Contact your bank: Do this as soon as you think your credit card or bank details may have been compromised. Most banks have a dedicated phone line for reporting fraud.
5. Chase reimbursement: Your bank must automatically reimburse you any funds that have been taken as a result of fraud, unless it can prove you were acting fraudulently or negligently.
It must also reimburse any fees incurred as a result of the fraudulent payments.
6. Ask for a deadlock letter: If your bank doesn't reimburse you, ask for a final letter of deadlock and make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which will make an impartial decision on refunding your cash.
You can submit a claim online free on its . If successful, your bank will reimburse you. If not, you can take your claim to court.
7. Contact insurers: If your home insurance policy covers cyber attacks, contact your insurers to make a claim, if needed.
This made it easier for hackers to guess the long numbers on cards.
In addition, the FCA said Tesco Bank did not take take appropriate action to prevent the fraud from happening in the first place.
The retailer also did not respond to the attack with sufficient "rigour, skill and urgency" making a number of blunders in how it dealt with the crisis and taking days to resume normal service.
Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “The fine the FCA imposed on Tesco Bank today reflects the fact that the FCA has no tolerance for banks that fail to protect customers from foreseeable risks.
"In this case, the attack was the subject of a very specific warning that Tesco Bank did not properly address until after the attack started.
"This was too little, too late. Customers should not have been exposed to the risk at all."
Left without food for the week
TESCO BANK'S meltdown resulted in many customers having their accounts frozen.
Back in 2016, dad Alan Baxter told The Sun that he woke up with his account down £600 and no notification from his bank.
He said: "I always check my bank account first thing in the morning and I noticed it was £600 down.
"I went to call Tesco and got the standard message that it was busy and that it will get to my call, but there was no message about what had happened.
"An hour and 16 minutes in Tesco got on the phone... and the lad at Tesco confirmed there had been suspicion of fraud.
"All he could do was to take my details and pass it onto the fraud teams and promise to discuss it in 48 hours."
The 39-year-old said: "I'm left trying to think of what I can sell or do - I've still got to buy food for the week and fill up the car."
Gerry Mallon, Tesco Bank chief executive, said: “We are very sorry for the impact that this fraud attack had on our customers.
"Our priority is always the safety and security of our customers’ accounts and we fully accept the FCA’s notice.
"We have significantly enhanced our security measures to ensure that our customers’ accounts have the highest levels of protection.”
The attack at Tesco Bank led to questions about how secure major banks are.
In a separate incident earlier this year, Tesco Bank cancelled thousands of customers' credit cards after a suspected fraud breach.
Following a number of high profile security breaches, Saga now sells cyber crime insurance – but how does it work and it is worth it?
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