How Vulnerable to Cyber Crime Are the US Fed's Daily Transactions?

The New York Fed stands at the center of the globalized, dollar-denominated world, maintaining as many as 250 accounts for central banks that contain approximately $3 trillion in assets. One of the reasons those funds are concentrated in New York is that the United States is seen as among the safest places in the world for central bankers looking to protect assets. At the same time, that massive pool of money represents a rich and tempting target for international thieves and their growing attempts at cybertheft. The amounts involved are staggering: The Federal Reserve official told CNBC, for what appears to be the first time, that as much as $80 billion is electronically wired into or out of international accounts at the New York Fed on an average day.  "I'm surprised it hasn't happened before," said a former senior New York Fed official who left the bank several years ago, referring to cyberthefts from the Fed. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, which is itself operated by a financial cooperative based in Brussels, said in a statement Tuesday that it "is aware of a malware that aims to reduce financial institutions' abilities to evidence fraudulent transactions on their local systems." SWIFT also said that the Bangladesh hack is not the only time thieves have attempted to break into an international financial institution's software. "There are other instances in which customers' internal vulnerabilities have been exploited," SWIFT said. The cooperative said it made a mandatory software update available to its customers this week. Which steps should the US Fed take to ensure higher security for daily transactions? Share your recommendations with the Cloud and Cyber Security Center: http://cloudandcybersecurity.blogspot.com/