Financial firms could have sensitive data stolen in 30 minutes or less

TraceSecurity, in its five-year statistics on Social Engineering and Penetration Testing, said that, on average, 95 percent of U.S. financial institutions’ sensitive data, including bank account records and social security numbers, could have been stolen in 30 minutes or less.

Between 2003 and 2008, TraceSecurity’s engineering team, headed by Jim Stickley, compromised the security of more than 1,000 financial institution branches. Had the attempts been genuine, TraceSecurity said that tens of millions of records could have been compromised as a result.