Online crooks force Brentwood company to take bank websites dark

Goldleaf says it has 'corrected' a threat to online-banking security

Email | Print By Milt Capps

05-30-2006 9:16 AM — Goldleaf Financial Solutions announced Saturday that potentially criminal "phishing" activity had prompted its Goldleaf Technologies subsidiary to shut down websites it hosts for community banks nationwide, including some Tennessee banks. Brentwood-based CEO G. Lynn Boggs said in a statement that since the threat was detected on Thursday, the company had "identified and corrected the problem," and operations had been "fully restored."

In a series of conversations yesterday and this morning, Goldleaf Executive Vice President Scott R. Meyerhoff told NashvillePost.com that he could not elaborate on the nature of the threat, nor on Goldleaf's efforts to remedy the situation. Meyerhoff said the threat directly affected only Goldleaf web-hosting operations. Those hosting services were turned off from sometime Thursday until early Saturday.

As a precaution, Goldleaf had also briefly shut down other company-wide online services, including automated clearinghouse (ACH) support and the company's website, but those broader services had been restored almost immediately, as the threat was better defined.

The apparent phishing assault became known Thursday when Goldleaf information-technology employees and some Goldleaf clients on Thursday reported "irregularity" that suggested malicious attempts were probably underway to attract some Goldleaf banks' customers to "fraudulent Web sites."

Atlanta-based Meyerhoff told NashvillePost.com that Goldleaf has thus far "received no notification" of any actual losses or of successful fraud attempts. He stressed that in his view the company had "acted quickly and decisively" in communicating facts about the incident to customers, regulators and law-enforcement agencies.

Typically, "phishers" use a variety of illegal technical ploys and persuasive communications methods in attempts to lure users of online financial services into divulging valuable personal information, such as passwords and account numbers, resulting in a form of identity theft and potentially serious financial losses.

Meyerhoff said that customers of as many as half Goldleaf's web-hosting customers could "potentially" have been directed to fraudulent sites during the approximately 91 minutes between the detection of the disturbing symptoms and the lockdown of all sites hosted by Goldleaf.

Meyerhoff said he could not disclose the number of sites hosted by the Technologies unit, but he said web-hosting is Goldleaf's smallest service offering, by revenue. The parent company has more than 2,500 financial institutions as customers. A 2003 estimate suggested then-independent Goldleaf Technologies was providing web design, web hosting and other services to 400 or more bank customers.

Goldleaf Financial Solutions Inc. is an acquisitions-driven amalgam created in the past six months of Nashville's former Private Business Inc. (Pbiz), Captiva Solutions LLC (image processing), PTC Banking Solutions Inc. (teller automation software) and Goldleaf Technologies (automated clearinghouse and deposit processing). Prior to the recent consolidation of acquired companies, Boggs and Meyerhoff served as Captiva's Solutions' CEO and chief financial officer, respectively.