Dive Brief:
- The Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers agreed on guidelines Tuesday for protecting the global financial sector from cyberattacks, according to reports. G7 includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
- The guidelines instruct institutions to bolster both their cybersecurity readiness as well as the companies they regulate. Public and private institutions were also tasked with constantly updating of their defenses.
- U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin said G7 officials looked at existing practices and areas that require more security to develop the guidelines.
Dive Insight:
Financial institutions around the globe are stepping up efforts to protect themselves from cyberattacks following the Bangladesh heist in February, wherein cybercriminals used the SWIFT banking network to steal nearly $81 billion from an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
A Treasury official told Reuters that the new guidelines are part of an effort to have regulators across the world look at cybersecurity as part of a risk-management strategy
The guidelines also encourage governments and businesses to share information about potential threats.
This week, Symantec posted an advisory warning that malware known as Trojan.Odinaff have targeted numerous of financial organizations worldwide since January 2016, indicating threats to the financial system remain significant and ongoing.
SWIFT recently announced its own set of mandatory security measures in response to the Bangladesh attack and other hacks on member banks. And last month, reports surfaced that the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a committee of central banks, was considering expansive rules to protect banks from cyberattacks.
The concern now is whether all the new guidelines and rules will work together effectively to bolster cyber protection for financial institutions worldwide.
