Top Dem adds DHS to banking network investigations

The ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee is expanding an investigation into the SWIFT banking network to include the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

{mosads}Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) this week sent letters to the DHS and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) officials asking how both organizations are reacting to a recent series of digital bank heists and working to prevent new ones. He sent letters to SWIFT — the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication — and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last month.

The letters are in response to an $81 million burglary of the Bangladeshi central bank and other attacks using the SWIFT network.

“Given the importance of SWIFT to the global financial system, these recent attacks raise important questions regarding the security practices of member banks and their ability to prevent future attacks,” Carper wrote in his letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson. 

Carper asked about the DHS’s process is for tracking attacks on banks and how the department works with financial services companies to boost their security.

He also asked BIS General Manager Jaime Caruana about information sharing between banks and the international financial institution’s role in improving banks’ security.

Carper gave both entities until June 29 to respond.