Treasury Dept. To Banks: We Need The 411 On Cyberattacks

The U.S. government is mandating financial institutions to disclose details about cyberattacks when submitting reports on fraud and money laundering.

The goal is for the additional information to help combat the growing threat that digital crimes pose to the country’s financial system, Reuters reported on Tuesday (Oct. 25).

Banks in the U.S. are accustomed to submitting suspicious activity reports (SARs) to the government when fraud cases involving at least $5,000 take place. The details that have to be included in these confidential reports are determined by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

This information must include a description of how the system was breached, device identifiers and the IP addresses of any computers compromised by hackers.

“Financial institutions can play an important role in safeguarding customers and the financial system from these threats through timely and thorough reporting of cyberevents and cyber-related information in SARs,” FinCEN explained in its advisory.

The broadening of the disclosure requirements is just the latest measure taken to help safeguard financial institutions in the wake of the Bangladesh heist earlier this year where cybercriminals made off with $81 million.

Just last month, banks using SWIFT networks, the global interbank messaging system used to move trillions of dollars each day, were warned to step up their security systems amid the rising threat of cyberattacks.