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Editor’s blogSeptember 4 2014

Banks must arm themselves for the age of cyber warfare

The dangers of cyber attacks are rapidly becoming apparent to banks, which are having to arm themselves against this new threat at a time when they are already grappling with capital, liquidity and governance risks.
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It is less scary than a nuclear arms race but the escalation in cyber attack capability is still scary – especially for banks as they are a key target. The realisation that the attackers may be governments with greater skills than criminals only adds to the challenge of keeping financial institutions safe.

Reports in late August 2014 that US authorities were investigating a new wave of attacks on US banks, including JPMorgan Chase, clearly illustrates the dangers. News agency Bloomberg reported that the investigation was looking at the alleged involvement of the Russian government in the attack given the tensions between the two countries over the situation in Ukraine. A security expert was quoted as saying that the hackers’ ability to breach several layers of security appeared to be "far beyond the capability of ordinary criminal hackers".

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