The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued an advisory on the 6th April 2018 to remind financial institutions to remain vigilant, following recent reports of cyber incidents where hackers attempted fraudulent transactions using the SWIFT system.
Attempted SWIFT Fraud at Malaysia’s Central Bank
Earlier last week, it was reported that Malaysia’s Central Bank detected and successfully blocked an attack that attempted to steal funds using SWIFT messages.
The bank has announced that risk controls and other defenses successfully blocked the attack emphasizing the importance of risk control measures against potential SWIFT attacks.
Highlighted measures by MAS’ advisory
MAS’ advisory reminds financial institutions to strengthen measures in the following areas:
- Implement a layered security approach to protect IT environment as well as appropriate measures to secure SWIFT payment terminals.
- Employ strong access controls to restrict the usage of administrator-level system accounts on SWIFT servers.
- Perform payment reconciliation/monitoring of SWIFT messages to detect any fraudulent payments in a timely manner.
How can we help?
NetGuardians’ out-of-the-box solution for SWIFT enables real-time identification of fraudulent transfers over the SWIFT network.
Machine-learning risk platform continuously monitors users and SWIFT transaction flows. It analyzes combinations of and correlations between variables (e.g. message types, destination countries, origin countries) from SWIFT and other networks to detect unusual fund transfers and raises alerts in real-time.
It makes sure that processes are completed – checks followed up, incidents escalated in line with regulations and controls followed.
If you would like to learn more, please contact:
Peter Marini
Asia Pacific Sales Director
Telephone: + 65 8160 4111
Email: marini@netguardians.sg
Address: 143 Cecil St, #09-01 GB Building, Singapore, 069542
Read more articles on this topic: SWIFT CSP - A Prompt for Wider Action
