Financial safety

Financial Cyber Attacks on the Rise

SWIFT, the global financial messaging system, announced that a few of it’s member banks have been attacked by hackers. SWIFT pressured them to comply with security procedures instituted after February’s high-profile $81 million heist at Bangladesh Bank. In a private letter to clients, SWIFT said that new cyber-theft attempts — some of them successful — have surfaced since June, when it last updated customers on a string of attacks discovered after the attack on the Bangladesh central bank.

According to CNBC, the disclosure suggests that cyber thieves may have ramped up their efforts following the Bangladesh Bank heist, and that they specifically targeted banks with lax security procedures for SWIFT-enabled transfers.The Brussels-based firm indicated that some victims in the new attacks lost money, but did not say how much was taken or how many of the attempted hacks succeeded. It did not identify specific victims, but said the banks varied in size and geography and used different methods for accessing SWIFT.