The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) provides financial messaging services to banks, financial institutions and corporations all over the world. The technology is used to exchange sensitive information about financial transactions by more than 11,000 customers in over 200 countries.
Financial institutions: a major target for cyber criminals; a critical subject for security professionals
With so much sensitive data and financial information being transferred over the SWIFT network, it’s become a major target for cyber criminals and a critical subject for security professionals in banking and finance.
There has been a string of high-profile attacks targeting SWIFT systems and extracting cataclysmic volumes of money over the past five years.
- In January 2015, $12 million was stolen from Ecuadorian bank Banco del Austro using SWIFT.
- In February 2016, the Central Bank of Bangladesh lost $81 million to attackers, who attempted to steal nearly $1 billion.
- In October 2017, a Taiwanese bank had $60 million pinched. Those funds were recovered, and the attackers arrested.
- In August 2018, India’s Cosmos Bank lost $13.5 million in an attack using unauthorised…
