The leaders of the Senate Banking Committee are asking financial regulators what they’re doing to ensure the safety of banks targeted for cybercrimes, raising the pressure to respond to recent breaches that include a high-profile attack on JPMorgan Chase and other banks that might have been an act of international aggression.
Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, wrote bank regulators a letter Tuesday in which they asked about their plans for counteracting cyberattacks.
“While financial institutions and retailers are at the front lines in protecting consumers’ information, the financial regulators must also ensure that financial institutions have the appropriate safeguards in place to keep consumers’ data safe,” Johnson said in a statement.
Crapo added that “financial institutions are a major target for cybercriminals, and many are perpetually under attack. We must know what steps the regulators and Treasury Department are taking to lessen the threat of cyberattacks on our financial system and improve coordination with the banks and retailers.”
Addressed to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Martin Gruenberg, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, Comptroller Thomas Curry and National Credit Union Administration Chairwoman Debbie Matz, the letter asks the regulators to spell out their processes for acquiring and sharing information related to breaches, as well as for information about coordinating responses between regulatory agencies and law enforcement. The letter also asks about the role of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, the super-regulatory body created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law to identify threats to the financial system as whole.
Fears that Wall Street might be at particular risk for hacks have risen since JPMorgan revealed in August that an attack had compromised the information of 76 million households and seven million small businesses. The incident also involved at least a dozen other financial firms.
Cybersecurity experts warn that the government and public have underestimated the magnitude and potential danger of the breach, partly because it is not clear whether the hacking was part of a larger strategy to defraud customers or markets or whether it was motivated by foreign enemies of the U.S., particularly Russia.
