I just watch The Dark Knight Rises and saw the scene where Bane stole money by hacking into the computers at the Gotham Stock Exchange can that really happen in real life?

Answer
We've all seen too many movies of someone hacking into a high security system with just a few clicks. It's pretty stupid of us to believe anything we see on TV; it's just entertainment. Without someone at the institution giving you their pass codes, it takes hours, maybe weeks of work, only to meet up with their software and hardware firewalls and tracking systems that leave your footprints all over the place. It just isn't done, at least not successfully. After hours of work trying to get through their security systems, several red flags are raised and security people are alerted long before you can do anything meaningful like withdraw or transfer money (which is going to require authorization by a top-level employee if for a significant amount), even if you manage to get in.

"Can you really rob a bank electronically?" No. Is it possible? Anything's possible. Can you get away with it. Not likely.

"Can you really rob a bank in person?" Sure. Will you get away with it? Not likely. About 99% of them get caught. Almost all of these bank robbers are lazy people that were never successful at anything else, so why would they be successful at this?

When you hear of someone getting robbed electronically, it is almost always a security breach of the individual person, not the bank. These cyber criminals are using a form of social engineering attack model combined with malware. Their favorite targets are large business customers.

Details abound on physical robberies of banks, but almost no data is released by the federal gov't on cyber crime.

Addendum
Just a little story for some fun.
I used to program and run mainframe computers in a previous life, so I'm very security conscious. About 10 years ago, I was trading forex and got the attention of a lot of people, maybe the wrong people that wanted to steal my algorithms.

I had one of the best hardware firewalls money could buy for an individual PC (not a network or mainframe), that cost about $1,500. The logging feature alerted me to some persistent hack attempts, but I didn't pay too much attention since they weren't getting anywhere.

I was in the habit of leaving my computer on all the time, 24/7. One Monday morning, I came to work and my computer was down. Not only that, I couldn't get online. I'm a computer genius, right, so I tried checking the firewall logs and connections, but it would not let me communicate with it. I am the master, and it was blocking ME. Fine, rebooted the hardware, and everything was back to normal, with a few exceptions. It required my logins for security control. This was weird, so I checked the logs.

A persistent hacker had been hacking away at my firewall all weekend. He gave up after six hours on Saturday, but came back and hacked at it for four hours on Sunday. The alerts had been sent to my computer, but nobody was there on the weekend. This hacker was good, and almost got in. The firewall saw that he was about to get through, knew it was an unauthorized entry, and alerted me multiple times, pleading with me to break the connection. At the last minute, just when the hacker was making real progress, the hardware firewall severed the connection to all outside sources and shut down my computer, requiring re-authorization to start again. The poor hacker wasted a whole weekend for nothing.

Needless to say, I don't leave my computer on over the weekend anymore.

Incidentally, the security system and multiple firewalls used by businesses and banks are a hundred times more complex than my little $1,500 hardware firewall. And theirs are monitored 24/7 by real people.

Anybody know whats going on with Knight Fox Holdings?

Have they gone under?
Thanks for the reply....but it seems that the phone# on their website directs you to some real estate website that does not work. Has anybody had any direct contact with anybody from the company?

Answer
No, they're still around. Contact info is:
Knight Fox Holdings
The Pinnacle Building
3544 Peachtree Rd. North East
5th Floor
Atlanta, Ga. 30326
(404) 419-6094
info@knightfoxholdings.com

http://www.knightfoxholdings.com/

What's more, I found this:

"If anyone suggests you borrow money using the equity in your house to invest in a Forex based trading scheme don't walk away, run away as fast as you can.

Did you notice this little gem from their disclaimer?

"The possibility exists that you could sustain a total loss of initial margin funds and be required to deposit additional funds to maintain your position. If you fail to meet any margin call within the time prescribed, your position will be liquidated and you will be responsible for any resulting losses."

http://www.knightfoxholdings.com/disclai...

In other words, you could give them $50,000 and have a $60,000 loss, in which case you owe them another $10,000.

I have no experience with the company. My comments are based on your question and what I found about them at their website."
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Avd_8idhjb2nPiATq2HzJTwjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20080402185328AA0AoGC