After all of the negative attention the SWIFT team had to deal with over the past few months, it looks like they have finally taken the right decision by doubling down on security. New security resources have been developed, which should help prevent these fraudulent attacks from happening in the first place.
The New SWIFT Security Resources
With three banks in total being infiltrated by assailants who stole credentials to abuse the SWIFT system, things have to change sooner rather than later. These three incidents showed the painfully weak security measures some financial players seem to deploy, and the SWIFT team has come up with new resources to address this issue.
While it remains unclear as to whether or not these attacks were facilitated by bank employees, the issue remains the same: a lot of funds has been stolen due to lackluster security. Technology can’t solve corruption in human nature, unfortunately, but it can be deployed to provide additional layers of security.
Information regarding ongoing attacks will continue to be shared among SWIFT participants. Additionally, the network will provide best practices to help organizations take preventive fraud measures, particularly when the security of bank credentials and network access are concerned. These seem to be the two most vulnerable areas for a lot of smaller and medium-sized bank in the SWIFT network.
The new resources, called KB tip 5020928, is a centralized collection of new and existing information. Accessing this particular resource can only be done through SWIFT.com customer credentials, and IT teams of participating banks are adivsed to monitor this resource at all times. Providing security teams with the most up-to-date information regarding security incidents is a step in the right direction, at least.
However, the SWIFT team once again affirmed the critical role individual banks play in this network. If the banks do not take these security guidelines to heart, attacks like these will continue to happen. Implementing these safeguards will be a lot easier for bigger banks than their smaller counterparts, though.
Source: Threatpost
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