Cyber Threats Result in 60% Increase in Cyber Intelligence Sharing Among Financial Firms

FS-ISAC (The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center) has announced that global cyber intelligence sharing among its member financial firms has soared by 60% from August 2020 to August 2021, caused by supply chain and ransomware threats. 

Record-breaking levels of intelligence sharing across all regions occurred due to large-scale threats. These areas included North America; Latin America; Europe, the UK, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Commenting on the news, FS-ISAC said that attacks against the financial sector and its supply chain have become a risk management imperative. Steven Silberstein, CEO of FS-ISAC, raised this point, saying that “With the increase in sophisticated cross-border cyber-criminal campaigns against the financial sector and its supply chain, sector-wide global collaboration has become a risk management imperative.

“Intelligence and best practice sharing across our community and platforms have reached new heights, spurred by the high-profile events of the last 12 months. We commend the members who go above and beyond to protect the financial system at large,” he added. 

Also commenting on this finding and stressing the importance of sharing intelligence, Fred Gibbins, chief information security officer at American Express, said: “American Express is deeply interconnected with the other players in the global financial system. We believe it is our critical responsibility to share intelligence and best practices with our peers to help the industry to protect and defend against emerging cyber threats. We are honored to be recognized by FS-ISAC and appreciate the collaboration between all the members for our collective protection.

“In Latin America, we benefit from intelligence that is shared by global US and Europe-based firms as well as from our neighboring countries,” said Juan Carrasco, head of cybersecurity at Banco Falabella Chile. “By monitoring attacks in Argentina and Brazil, we were able to predict and thwart a cyber-attack in Chile. This attests to the power of cross-border intelligence sharing in mitigating cyber risk,” he continued. 

Corsin Camichel, cyber threat intelligence regional lead at UBS, pointed out the importance of following information-sharing best practices: 

“As a global firm, UBS monitors the global cybersecurity landscape to proactively detect and mitigate risks. 

“Sharing intelligence and best practices with our peers and regional counterparts is fundamental to staying ahead of emerging cyber threats,” he said.