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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Reports of additional attacks against banks that use SWIFT, the global financial transaction messaging network, came to light Wednesday. The attacks were reportedly persistent, sophisticated and in some cases successful, impacting an undisclosed number of financial institutions.

It's the latest development since February when cybercriminals used SWIFT to steal $81 million in a Bangladesh Bank heist. Reports of the latest bank attacks come from a private letter obtained by the Reuters news agency sent by SWIFT to its clients informing them of the attacks and urging them to shore-up their cyber defenses.

The letter told clients that SWIFT customer "environments" have been compromised and that the possibility of a "threat is persistent, adaptive and sophisticated – and it is here to stay," according to the Reuters.

The letter said attackers were attempting to use customer environments to send fraudulent payment instructions for SWIFT-enabled transfers. The letter informed clients that the attempted thefts surfaced in June and that cybercriminals had stolen an undisclosed sum of money from a number of different unnamed victims.

SWIFT, which stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is a private network used by financial organizations to send and receive transactions.

While details are scant on the most recent attacks, SWIFT said weak local security that allowed attackers to compromise networks and send bogus messages requesting bank transfers was the common thread between attacks.

Since the February theft, SWIFT has been stepping up efforts to prod banks to tighten security. Earlier this month SWIFT announced a security tools campaign that introduced an updated two-factor authentication system in its products to help customers protect access to SWIFT interfaces.

Previously: Bangladesh Central Bank Exposed to Hackers by Cheap Switches, No Firewall

Original Submission