Tag: financial crime

The basis for safer digital finance

Cyber Security CII sector, Industry News

The transformations we are seeing in numerous fields – from energy and mobility to health care, agriculture, and financial services – all hinge on digital technologies, along with an array of associated business ecosystems. All these technologies and systems must be reliable, secure and deserving of our trust.

The Financial Inclusion Global Initiative (FIGI) is an open framework for collaboration led by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the World Bank Group, and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI).

Our partnership brings together the expertise to accelerate digital financial inclusion. With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we have brought together the full range of stakeholders set to benefit from this expertise.

The World Bank Group and CPMI have helped to build a strong understanding of the policy considerations surrounding digital identity and incentivizing the use of electronic of payments.

ITU’s work has focused on security, infrastructure and trust – secure financial applications and services, reliable digital infrastructure, and the resulting consumer trust that our money and digital identities are safe.
No more secrets

Considering the prevalence of data breaches, the need for strong authentication is clear, with discussions in the industry often noting that “there are no secrets anymore.”

New ITU standards for a universal authenticator framework (X.1277) and client-to-authenticator protocol (X.1278) are helping overcome the security limitations of the "shared secret" approach, the basis for the widely familiar username-password model of authentication.

Users can now authenticate locally to their device using biometrics, with the device then authenticating the user online with public key cryptography. With the new standards, users are asked to authenticate locally to their device only once, and their biometric data never leaves the device. This model avoids susceptibility to phishing, man-in-the-middle attacks, or other forms of attack targeting user credentials.

FIGI engagement helped to usher these specifications, first developed by the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) Alliance, into the ITU standardization process to stimulate their adoption globally. Authentication options consistent with X.1277 and X.1278 are now supported by most devices and browsers on the market.
Fortifying a walled garden

In developing countries, digital financial services are often provided over Signalling System No.7 (SS7), a legacy network protocol standardized by ITU in the late 1970s. SS7 enables all network operators to interconnect and looks sure to remain in use for years to come.

But security was not considered in its design. SS7 was designed as a walled garden. Entry to the SS7 network was intended to be highly regulated, with only trusted network operators being granted access. But malicious actors have since found various ways to get hold of the keys, especially since some of the initial design and deployment assumptions were no longer valid with the introduction of deregulation, voice over IP, and mobile networks.

FIGI has worked to raise awareness about SS7’s security vulnerabilities and associated mitigation techniques. As the need to mitigate these vulnerabilities increases, network operators can look to ITU’s new Q.3057 standard outlining signalling requirements and architecture for interconnection between trustable network entities. This is another standard rooted in FIGI discussions.
Reliable, widely available connectivity

Trust in digital financial services is also acutely affected by the reliability and availability of connectivity. Network downtime and transaction failures resulting from dropped connections can erode the trust of consumers and merchants in digital financial services.

Investment in digital infrastructure must continue, with the industry adopting meaningful, widely accepted benchmarks for service quality. ITU standards specify the route towards reliable, interoperable network infrastructure, and they provide a wide range of tools to assess the performance and quality of the services running over this infrastructure.

FIGI highlighted the demand for service quality indicators specific to digital financial services. With the expertise on hand at ITU, we have delivered new standards describing key quality considerations for digital financial services (ITU G.1033) and a methodology to assess the quality of user experience (ITU P.1052).
Security across the value chain
Every industry player involved in providing digital financial services has to be concerned about security risks. Security is only as strong as its weakest link, and innovation in digital finance continues to extend the length and increase the complexity of the underlying value chain.

Secure digital finance calls for coordinated defences that are attuned to evolving security threats. A key FIGI report outlines the security assurance framework needed to achieve this for each actor in the digital finance value chain.

The best practices suggested by the framework could form the basis for a safer business ecosystem. They reflect the needs of everyone involved, from customers to network operators and digital finance providers, right through to third-party providers interfacing with the financial system.

[Source: ITU]
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FS-ISAC Report Finds Cybercriminals and Nation-State Actors Converging, Increasing Cross-Border and Supply Chain Attacks

Cyber Security CII sector, Industry News
FS-ISAC, the only global cyber intelligence sharing community solely focused on financial services, announced today the findings of its latest report, which found that wittingly or otherwise, nation-states and cyber criminals are leveraging each other’s tools and tactics, leading to an increase in cross-border attacks targeting financial services suppliers.
The pandemic has accelerated digitization, connectivity, and the sector’s interdependence, as demonstrated by recent supply chain incidents. Increasingly, the financial sector needs a trusted conduit of real-time cyber information between institutions and third-parties.
"FS-ISAC was the logical host for us to brief the financial services sector to reach a critical mass of institutions around the world all at once," said Jonathan Yaron, CEO of Accellion. "This way, we could ensure that the industry received critical and correct information via a trusted source, enabling it to act quickly to mitigate the impact of the incident."
“Organizations properly practicing defense-in-depth with multi-layered controls are still vulnerable to large-scale and even systemic issues through third party suppliers,” said J.R. Manes, Global Head of Cyber Intelligence at HSBC. “The FS-ISAC community provides its members the visibility into emerging threats that could impact customers and business, even when they are not directly exposed. Ensuring and encouraging the sharing of cyber threat intelligence is a vital part of the defense of not only the financial sector, but the whole business ecosystem that runs on top of the Internet.”
FS-ISAC’s report outlines today’s top threats:
- Convergence of nation-states and cyber criminals: Nation-state actors are leveraging the skills and tools of cyber criminals, either knowingly or not, to enhance their own capabilities.
- Third-party risk on an upward trend: Suppliers to financial firms will continue to be lucrative targets for threat actors, as shown by three highly visible incidents in the last two quarters.
- Cross-border attacks will increase: Cyber criminals test their attack in one country before hitting multiple continents and sub-verticals, as shown by a DDoS extortion campaign targeting ~100 financial institutions in months.
“Trying to outpace evolving cyber threats diverts resources from a financial firm’s core business,” said Steve Silberstein, FS-ISAC CEO. “As the global fincyber utility, FS-ISAC enables industry-wide cross-border sharing to pool resources, expertise, and capabilities to manage cyber risks and incident response.”
Report Methodology
The Navigating Cyber 2021 report is derived from FS-ISAC’s rigorous threat intelligence monitoring maintained by its intelligence operations team. The intelligence is sourced from FS-ISAC's thousands of member financial firms in more than 70 countries and further augmented by analysis by the Global Intelligence Office. Multiple streams of intelligence were leveraged for the curation of the round-up, which examined data across a one year period from January 2020 to January 2021.
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FS-ISAC Leads Financial Sector in World's Largest International Live-Fire Cyber Exercise

Cyber Security CII sector, Industry News
FS-ISAC, the only global cyber intelligence sharing community solely focused on financial services, announced its leadership role in devising the financial sector’s scenario during this year’s NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) Exercise Locked Shields.
Locked Shields simulated a series of realistic and sophisticated cyber attack scenarios using cutting-edge technologies, complex networks, and diverse attack methods to test the countries’ ability to protect vital services and critical infrastructure.
This year the exercise strategic track scenario included a large-scale disruption across multiple aspects of the financial services sector. To do this, FS-ISAC convened a Scenario Expert Planning Group comprised of its members including the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Cyber Resilience Coordination Centre (CRCC), Mastercard, NatWest Group, and SWITCH-CERT among others.
“Given the cross-border nature of today’s cyber threats, exercises like Locked Shields are critical tools in preparing the global financial services industry to better defend against increasingly sophisticated threat actors,” said Teresa Walsh, Global Head of Intelligence of FS-ISAC. “To strengthen the financial sector’s resiliency, FS-ISAC has facilitated cyber exercises for more than ten years. This is a natural extension of our role in helping protect the global financial system.”
A key focus of the exercise strategic track is the cyber dependencies of the financial services industry and how they relate to government and critical infrastructure. The exercise will also examine and account for the new realities brought about by the pandemic, such as the greater security vulnerabilities caused by accelerated digitization and remote work.
“Large-scale exercises like Locked Shields provide both the public and private sectors an opportunity to pressure test response capabilities across borders,” said Ron Green, Chief Security Officer, Mastercard. “Moving with speed and purpose are crucial during an actual incident and everyone involved will gain from the enhanced collaboration and information sharing.”
“Locked Shields continually strives to address the most pressing needs of our nations by emulating current challenges faced by leaders in the cyber domain. Partnerships, such as with FS ISAC, allows us to present current real-world challenges to national leadership. The exercise tests the ability of nations to address a massive cyber attack from internal government cooperation to what mechanisms can be used for coordination and information sharing with the private sector and international partners,” said Colonel Jaak Tarien, Director of the CCDCOE, a NATO-affiliated cyber defence hub that has organized this Exercise every year since 2010.
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Criminal Network Stealing over €12m from US-Based Banks Broken

Agency News, Industry News
The criminal network deceived 50 financial institutions through shell companies
A cross-border operation coordinated by Europol and led by the Spanish National Police (Policía Nacional) and the US Secret Service resulted in the dismantling of an organised crime group involved in fraud and money laundering. The operation involved also police services from Austria, Denmark and Greece as well as the US Department of Justice and the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
On the coordinated from Europol action day, 6 October 2020, law enforcement offices carried out more than 40 house searches, arrested 37 suspects (2 in Austria, 11 in Greece, 23 in Spain and 1 in the UK) and seized 13 luxury cars. The follow up actions led to the freeze of 87 bank accounts worth €1.3 million.
Overall results:
- 105 suspects arrested
- 88 house searches
- Over €12 million in damages
- 87 accounts with more than €1.3 million frozen
- €406 000 euros seized in cash
- 14 high-end vehicles seized
- 19 European arrest warrants executed
The criminal organisation, mainly formed of Greek nationals, set up shell companies in the United States and opened bank accounts for these companies. To gain the trust of the financial institutions, members of the criminal network made transfers to the US-based accounts from different locations in the EU. Based on this trust, the American-based banks issued debit and credit cards for these accounts. Retailers in on the scam, most of whom were in Spain, used the payment cards to finance the available credited amounts on the cards. To launder the stolen funds, they transferred them to different bank accounts, owned by members of the criminal network located in several EU countries. More than 50 American financial institutions became victims of these fraudulent activities losing over €12 million.
Europol facilitated the information exchange, the operational coordination and provided analytical support for this eight months long investigation. During the operation, Europol set up a coordination centre at its headquarters with the use of a virtual command post to enable liaison officers from the involved countries, Europol experts and a representative from Eurojust to coordinate the operational activities. Europol also deployed an analyst to Greece to provide real-time analytical support to investigators on the ground.
The Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT) at Europol supported the operation. This standing operational team consists of cyber liaison officers from different countries who work from the same office on high profile cybercrime investigations.
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