Swift says attacks are ‘here to stay’: Report

The payments messaging network Swift has told its client banks that the threat of cyberattacks “is very persistent, adaptive and sophisticated — and it is here to stay.”

The warning was part of a letter Swift sent to clients last month and reported on Monday by Reuters.

Cyberattacks carried out over the Swift network are said to have continued since the $81 million heist in February from the Bangladesh central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Stephen Gilderdale, head of Swift’s customer security program, was quoted by Reuters as saying that clients have been hit with a “meaningful” number of attacks. About a fifth of them resulted in stolen funds, while the vast majority were thwarted. Swift attributed nearly all of the intercepted attacks to its alerting mechanism and the customer security program it rolled out earlier this year.

Gilderdale did not disclose the names of the banks that have been attacked or say how much has been stolen.

Arrests tied to the Bangladeshi heist may soon occur, according to the Reuters story. Citing comments by Mohammad Shah Alam of the Dhaka police, the story said that some Bangladesh central bank officials deliberately exposed its computer systems and enabled the theft.

First appeared at PS