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Earlier on Friday Reuters reported that Wells Fargo, Ecuador’s
Banco del Austro and Citibank, whose Managing Director,
Franchise Risk & Strategy, Yawar Shah, is SWIFT's Chairman, did
not inform SWIFT of an attack last year in which over $12
million was stolen from BDA.
The banks and Shah all declined to comment.
Banks use secure SWIFT messages for issuing payment instructions
to each other. The network is considered the backbone of
international finance but faith in its security has been rocked
by the theft from Bank Bangladesh’s account at the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York.
SWIFT said in a communication to users on Friday that they
should “immediately inform SWIFT of any suspected fraudulent use
of their institution’s SWIFT connectivity or related to SWIFT
products and services.”
SWIFT is especially concerned about the use of malware to access
interfaces with the SWIFT network. The Belgium-based
co-operative, which is owned by its user banks, said it needed
technical information from systems which have been compromised
with malware to better understand the risks of attack.
Malware was used in the hacks on Bank Bangladesh in February and
in the BDA case in January 2015.
"It is essential that you share critical security information
related to SWIFT with us, "SWIFT said.
SWIFT told clients it would notify them as soon as possible of
cases where malware had been used to attack systems “so that you
can better target your preventative and detective efforts”.
SWIFT did not inform clients about the BDA theft because it was
unaware of it, a spokeswoman told Reuters.
(Editing by Greg Mahlich)
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