Dive Brief:
- Six U.S. senators sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to prioritize cybersecurity at this weekend's Group of 20 summit in China, according to Reuters.
- The senators want Obama to compel G20 leaders to commit to a "coordinated strategy to combat cyber-crime at critical financial institutions," according to the letter.
- The letter was penned by Sherrod Brown, D-OH, a senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee; Mark Warner, D-VA, and Martin Heinrich, D-NM, both members of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY; Debbie Stabenow, D-MI, the ranking Democrat on the Senate's Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; and Gary Peters, D-MI.
Dive Insight:
U.S. lawmakers have grown more concerned about financial security after hackers stole $81 million from Bangladesh's central bank in February, using the SWIFT banking network to request nearly $1 billion from an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
"We strongly urge you to work with your counterparts and prioritize this discussion at the G20 leaders level in September," the letter states.
A White House spokesperson said G20 members at the summit are expected to commit to cooperate to fight cybercrime. However, the G20 pledged to do that when it met last fall, yet incidents continue to occur.
The senators say world regulators should "erect more robust defenses and collaborative systems to prevent and mitigate the impact of successful attacks.”
A review and ranking of the security postures of thousands of global financial services companies released earlier this month found 95% of the top 20 U.S. commercial banks by revenue have a network security grade of C or below. The report also found 75% of the top 20 U.S. commercial banks by revenue are infected with malware.
