Ebenefits Hacked?

[lueharbin]

I did not get paid on May 1 because my direct deposit had been fraudlently changed on ebenefits. Has this happened to anyone else and how long before the VA fraud department authorized the money back to your correct account? Customer service at VA says it could be at least a month before I even hear from them. This is unacceptable!!

[Navy4life]

Sounds like your funds were taken from you illegally. Have you contacted The Bancorp? They are the ones who will know...The VA is not responsible for this but I am sure it will get fixed. I am thinking the fraud occurred within your bank account not Ebennies. But I could be wrong...

I am so sorry you are going through this...I sure hope they fix this for you ASAP!

[lueharbin]

My bank is Navy Federal Credit Union. They didnot receive my direct deposit for May. According to the the VA, the change was made on ebenefit. They customer service rep changed my direct deposit back to NFCU and advised me to lock my ebenefit account, which I did. Now I have to wait for a decision from the fraud department at the VA. I have never heard of the Bancorp.com before this happened to me.The credit union has done nothing wrong the problem occurred when someone changed my direct deposit on ebenefit.

[Pete53]

You might want to file a complaint with your State Banking and Federal Banking Institutions.

[RQ]

Heads up out there: for me It started back in APRIL/MAY 2015 and am just finding out that my E-benefits account was compromised, the e mail address was changed , password was changed , challenge questions to access my account were changed and my VA disability funds were diverted to an account with "GREEN DOT BANK" .  I believe this was not a random mistake/glitches since it appears the perp was logging in to my account mostly at the end and middle of the month since MAY up to the present. my VA compensation is relatively small so I don't check my account very often ( its supposed to be secure right?)  and didn't take notice until I enrolled in a class and my GI bill payment didn't come in this month..   

[pwrslm]

This Is just ''one'' of my reasons I don't use ebenefit's!

 

Its all going to end up in the same place.  Sure, not using the EB site might keep your password safe, because you don't have one.  But when you mail in your information, it goes into the same database that all of the EB data goes into, and that is all accessible by the internet. 

Password security is important.  You need to use more complex configurations with numbers and letters in both upper and lower case.  But even the best passwords don't help is the servers can be back-doored through software glitches.  Hackers find ways to hack into windows on a regular basis that provide them the ability to get into systems using windows.  All of the patches you have to install for your operating system testify to that fact.

Edited October 11, 2015 by pwrslm

[broncovet]

"Not using" ebenefits wont necessarily protect you from fraud/identity theft.  You see, "someone else" probably logged in as you, and changed it.   I used to work in Network Security, and, beleive me, there needs to be major, major changes in our entire country's computer network.

Its clear to me the ability to log into the computer network anonomously is not working.  I think you should have to authenticate with a login username and password everywhere/anytime on login.   You know, kind of like when you cash a check, you have to present valid ID.  Logging onto the internet can/does give one access to funds, so it makes sense that if you have to present an ID to cash a check, then you need to have your ID verified to get online.  There is "thumbprint authentication" technology used by some  companies to monitor cash registers   already widely  available, and that is very very difficult for hackers to defeat.  The facial recognition technology is also widely available.   

You see, the same thing happened with Cars.  License plates were not required, so people could commit crimes with the car, and not know who owned the car.  Its different now.  You have to have a license plate identifier everywhere, and you can be identified almost immediately by a police officer pulling you over, if you are driving your car.  

License plates did not eliminate automobile crime, but it has made many easier to solve.  In a similar way, we need a national computer security system, where you can not log on to the American Internet without official knowledge.  They would have a record of every website you visit.    Yes, this is a violation of privacy, but so are license plates, and drivers licenses.  

Its a constant war between hackers (black hats) and IT security professionals (white hats) and that wont go away, just like people still use cars to commit crimes.    We need new legislation, and a national network security program very, very soon, or stuff like this will get much, much worse and more widespread.  Computer crime is not victimless, and right now, computer criminals are protected because, largely, we can not figure out who they are in most cases.  

     Its actually much more important than gun control.  Why?  Did you know the 9 eleven terrorists used the internet to communicate to bomb NY city Twin towers?  Without this communication, this would not have happened, as it was not done by just ONE person.  It took many.  

     We already have gun control in most states.  Arizona, interestingly, has the weakest gun control laws, where Arizonans can carry rifles without a permit.  It also has the fewest murders per capital.  

Chicago, however, has the strictest gun controls..and the most murders.  Additional gun control legislation is not only ineffective, and against our constitution,  but counter productive to reducing gun violence.  

Edited October 11, 2015 by broncovet