Could the unthinkable happen as reagrds bank hacked and all account details lost?

agrinnall

bundly wrote: »

I opted for paperless statements ie only online. However my friend asked me a few days ago, how would I prove how much I have in my bank account if the system crashes.

I'm getting paper statements again!

Unfortunately a statement proves nothing more than what you had in the account at some point in the past. You might have withdrawn the entire balance the day after the statement was produced.

enfield_freddy

agrinnall wrote: »

Unfortunately a statement proves nothing more than what you had in the account at some point in the past. You might have withdrawn the entire balance the day after the statement was produced.

but they will have to prove that ON PAPER

Strider590

The website interface for your bank in not your account and it does not have direct access to your actual account, it is just an interface, meaning if your account was accessed they would only be able to do what you yourself can do.

Forget spy movies, it just doesn't work that way.

When you make a transfer online, the bank pays for that transfer and shows you it's happened, BUT in the background nothing has happened at all, it's a bit like an IOU between banks. This means it can be cancelled if it's found to be fraudulent and because in reality no money ever left your account (by that time), they know exactly what the state of your account should be. Plus they'd log IP addresses when the account is accessed, they might even block IP addresses from other countries. There are countless ways in which they could confirm that a transaction was not carried out by you.

And as for hackers, hackers that post the fact they've done these hacks are a god send, malicious criminal hackers would not announce these hacks, they'd keep them secret and use them to steal money.

Business and the media continues to criminalise ethical hackers, but without them we'd be using outdated and highly insecure systems, the criminal element would run riot.

I got into SO much sh*t when I told my previous employer that there was a major security hole in their network, instead of asking me how to fix it they simply locked down my PC AND they nearly fired me..... Talk about shooting the messenger.

AndyPix

In short no, there is zero percent chance of this happening.
As mentioned above, there are many many redundancies in the system.
Each transaction is mirrored more than once, and more than one bank is always involved to there are mirrors of mirrors (ie the sending and the receiving bank)

Also, all financial institutions data is backed up to a datacentre that has zero connectivity to the outside world - for just this scenario .. So if the unthinkable happened, and somehow all the banks data was lost, it could be recovered from tape backups in the vaults ..

I agree, that if this were to happen, it would be outright anarchy on the streets and civilisation would probly break down around it

Fightsback

Banking hacks can and do happen, they just like to sweep it under the carpet and pretend nothing happened. They don't wish to undermine faith in the banking system with bad publicity.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/15/bank-hack_n_6688268.html

AndyPix

Banking hacks do happen - But that would not lead to the scenario that the OP described

Tip : Don't believe everything you read on the huffington

Fightsback

AndyPix wrote: »

Banking hacks do happen - But that would not lead to the scenario that the OP described

Tip : Don't believe everything you read on the huffington

Oh they happen all right unless of course you believe in the banks latest invention "The ever lasting Gob Stopper"

Besides that story was well publicised in many other news outlets, just so happens that was the first ranking hit from Google as I was looking for that particular news item

AndyPix

yes yes I know that one happened, along with a few others that have seen the banks lose millions of $ .

However, there is nothing that could lead to the scenario that the OP describes.
Nor could there be.

As for the Huff, I was simply pointing out that that is very very tabloid and should be taken with a pinch of salt

joe134

certain banks give interest bearing a/cs, for paperless only statements.

Fightsback

AndyPix wrote: »

$ .
However, there is nothing that could lead to the scenario that the OP describes.
Nor could there be.

Never, say never. The Titanic was once described as unsinkable.

You might wish to read about the very clever hacking of the Iowa State Lottery and subsequent amateurish collection attempt of the prize:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32301117

Is the BBC reputable enough for you ?