FINAL WORD
While still in its early stages of establishment , the big banks expect the group members will share more information with each other about cyber threats , prepare comprehensive responses for when attacks occur and conduct war games designed for the issues facing the biggest institutions , the WSJ reported .
Earlier this year an attack against the SWIFT ( Society for Worldwide Interbank Telecommunication ) international financial transaction system focused attention on the potential cascading threat of an interconnected yet not fully integrated financial system . At the heart of the breach , unknown hackers broke into the Bangladesh central bank ’ s systems and stole credentials for payment transfers . The hackers then bombarded the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with dozens of requests to move money from the Bangladesh bank ’ s account there to entities in the Philippines and Sri Lanka Bank , successfully transferring $ 81 million of an intended $ 1 billion .
In the aftermath of the breach , SWIFT circulated an open letter to its users providing an update on the steps it was set to take in light of what it described to be a number of “ fraudulent payment cases ”, and on specific measures needed to be taken by members to ensure that the community was using its collective force to reduce the risk of cyber intrusions .
MANAGEMENT LIKES THE PAY-AS-YOU-GO APPROACH , AND MORE IMPORTANTLY , THEY FIND THAT THESE SCENARIOS ALLOW THE BUSINESS TO WORK FASTER AND GET TO MARKET FASTER WITH NEW AND IMPROVED SOLUTIONS
SWIFT put forward a number of measures around information sharing and collaboration against cyber threats , stating that the security of its global financial community could only be ensured through a collaborative approach among SWIFT , its users , its central bank overseers and third party suppliers .
At the time , DarkMatter supported the measures SWIFT was looking to institute , but stated they did not go far enough in establishing a sustainable , resilient cyber environment to better mitigate against further cyber threats and attacks . It now appears the eight large US banks that have decided to band together to bolster their cyber security postures independently of SWIFT ’ s efforts may agree with us .
We supported the recommendations made by SWIFT in May to increase the levels of transparency , information exchange and collaboration within its network , and which we consider to be critical to the sustainable success of any trust-based community . However , we did not consider the reactive nature of these developments as being the most effective long-term cyber security strategy .
DarkMatter was of the opinion that all parties – the sending bank , the receiving banks , and SWIFT - could have done more to prevent the unauthorised transactions that occurred earlier this year . The receiving banks should have done more to flag suspect transaction requests , though the main culprit was the sending bank . For large sums , the bank should have been using multi-factor authentication to accounts , so that even if a password was stolen and access to a system gained , the hackers could not access any accounts or transactions without the corresponding token or biometric for the account .
DarkMatter continues to recommend that institutions adopt a pro-active approach to cyber security in which they assume a state of breach in order to develop the defences and mitigation mechanisms necessary to minimise possible disruption caused by any cyber security incident .
SWIFT users need to better understand their respective risk profiles before any mitigation can begin in earnest . This involves understanding their assets , the full range of threats they may face and from whom , and the vulnerabilities . SWIFT as a society needs to develop a network-wide monitoring and mitigation protocol in the face of cyber threats , and it appears this is something the eight large banks have taken it upon themselves to undertake .
The establishment of a dedicated cyber defence group by the eight large banks is a positive , pro-active move that makes sense given the heightened scope and complexity of their operations . This is a step beyond
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