A new report by the Council of Economic Advisers said cyberattacks cost the U.S. between $56bn and $109bn in 2016; the council's report represents between 0.31% and 0.58% of the 2016 U.S. gross domestic product being at risk; the financial sector had the biggest number of attacks seeing about 471 breaches in 2016; the report made an ominous statement on detecting threats saying, “Due to common vulnerabilities, instances of security breaches occur across firms and in patterns that are difficult to anticipate.” Source.
As bigger breaches occur startups focusing on cybersecurity have seen investment double in the last year; globally there was $7.6bn invested in cybersecurity startups this past year after seeing $3.8bn in 2016; global spending on cybersecurity was estimated to be over $80bn in 2017 as companies look to protect their data and company systems from evolving threats. Source.
SWIFT says that digital heists are on the rise as hackers are becoming more sophisticated in their tactics; they are recommending that banks increase security of computers used to transfer money; a Bangladesh Bank lost $81 million back in February, 2016 and there are more recent examples of hacks; the report provides details on the new methods hackers are using. Source
ABN Amro, ING and Rabobank were the victims of DDoS cyber attacks this past weekend; all the banks saw their websites become unavailable or would run extremely slow; the companies have released statements that their services are now fully restored and that clients’ details were not compromised. Source.
Sheltered Harbor began earlier this year and covers around 400 million accounts across banks and credit unions; members of the project are required to back up data so other banks can serve customers in the event that another bank becomes disabled; the project goes beyond concerns over customer data being stolen to address concerns that a cyberattack could destroy or lock data. Source
