Big banks join forces to fight cyber crime

Wall Street Journal and Fortune recently reported that eight of the largest U.S. banks are forming an alliance to better combat the growing threat of cyber-attacks targeting the financial services industry. The new group, which is in the early stages of development, includes J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.

Specifically, the group will share threat information with each other, develop comprehensive cyber-attack response plans and conduct cyber war games that simulate attacks. The group will operate under the umbrella of the larger Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC).
Cyber Security a Top Priority
This new group underscores the importance of cyber security for the financial services industry, which has long been in the cross-hairs of cyber-attacks. Consider the following:

The financial services industry was the most breached industry last year, accounting for 35% of data breaches – Verizon 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR)
Financial services ranked third in attacks last year – IBM 2016 Cyber Security Intelligence Index
68% of financial services firms experienced multiple successful attacks – 2016 Cyberthreat Defense Report

While this new alliance consists of big banks, who have more complex environments, smaller financial service firms are not immune to cyber-attacks. As larger banks and financial institutions strengthen their defenses, cyber criminals will move downstream seeking easier targets. Regional banks, credit unions and smaller investment houses must make cyber security a top priority as well.

Sharing Threat Information Improves Security

Let’s face it. The financial services industry (one could argue all industries) is fighting an asymmetric cyber war. The threats are ever-present and ever-changing. Cyber-attacks have become more sophisticated andindustrialized with attackers selling their services on the Dark Web. Security professionals are constantly a step behind attackers.
To get in front of growing cyber threats, financial services organizations must make a concerted effort to share cyber threat information. Sharing threat intelligence helps the financial services industry stay on top of new attacks, limit the causalities from emerging threats, and shortens the useful lives of attacks against banks and other financial firms.
Imperva recognizes the power of leveraging threat intelligence to improve security. We arm our industry-leading web application firewall with real-time threat intelligence. These threat intelligence feeds combine globally crowd-sourced data and research from the Imperva Defense Center.
Crowd-sourcing threat intelligence is vital because no single security team can stay abreast of today’s dynamic threat landscape. Pooling the collective resources and knowledge across the financial services industry helps prioritize the threats to your institution, alleviates thecybersecurity skills shortage and significantly improve your institution’s security posture.
As a market leader in data and web application security, Imperva helps financial services organizations around the world protect against escalating cyber threats. Learn more about how our industry-leading data and web application security solutions can help your institution.