Written by Tom Turner, CEO, BitSight
In the last few years we have seen the frequency and severity of third-party cyberattacks against global financial institutions continue to increase. One of the biggest reported attacks against financial organisations occurred in early 2016, when $81 million was taken from accounts at Bangladesh Bank. Unknown hackers used SWIFT credentials of Bangladesh Central Bank employees to send more than three dozen fraudulent money transfer requests to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York asking the bank to transfer millions of the Bangladesh Bank’s funds to bank accounts in the Philippines, Sri Lanka and other parts of Asia. The Bangladesh Bank managed to halt $850 million in other transactions, and a typo made by the hackers raised suspicions that prevented them from stealing the full $1 billion they were after.
Landscape
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) reported 69 attacks in 2017 compared to 38 reported in 2016, a rise of more than 80% in the last year.
We saw two main trends last year. First, there was a continuation of cyberattacks targeting systems running SWIFT — a fundamental part of the world’s financial ecosystem. Because SWIFT…
