G20 Finance Chiefs Pledge To Fight Cybercrime

The G20 is making a large coordinated effort to battle attacks on the global banking system.

During a meeting in Germany, finance leaders at the G20 Summit agreed to combat cybercrime with cross-border cooperation in order to maintain financial stability, according to a document seen by Reuters.

“We will promote the resilience of financial services and institutions in G20 jurisdictions against malicious use of information and communication technologies, including from countries outside the G20,” the document said.

Since the $81 million heist that took place at last year’s Bangladesh central bank, cybercrime in the financial banking sector has become a top priority. The theft exposed many of the vulnerabilities within the bank’s system, Reuters said.

The latest developments in the investigation into the hackers who stole nearly $81 million, were that some Bangladesh central bank officials are believed to have purposely exposed the financial institution’s computer systems, which enabled hackers to pull off what’s considered to be the largest bank heist in history.

The agreement between the G20 leaders is set to be finalized this week.

Last year, the G20 Summit experienced an onslaught of malicious cyberattacks during the event, which took place Sept. 3–6.

NSFOCUS, the security solutions provider tasked with supplying cybersecurity protection for all of the networks and applications associated with the G20 Summit, confirmed that it thwarted 133,254 attacks targeting the G20 network.

“Securing an event of the size and prominence of G20 is an enormous undertaking,” Dr. Richard Zhao, SVP of global threat research at NSFOCUS, explained in a statement.

“Cybercrime is evolving, with hackers moving beyond traditional attacks to more advanced threats, and geopolitical conferences are always an ideal target for malicious activity. In order to combat these threats and ensure the security of the summit, NSFOCUS took a holistic approach and implemented an integrated and layered security solution to protect the G20. As a result, the event carried on as planned, and the striking number of incoming attacks did not disrupt activities,” Zhao continued.