WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Dartmouth Report: Financial Sector Vulnerable to Cyber Attack

Dartmouth Report: Financial Sector Vulnerable to Cyber Attack

Hanover, New Hampshire - September 10, 2003

The report looks at steps taken by the nation's financial industry to protect its operations since the September terrorist attacks on New York and Washington two years ago.

"Is the banking and finance sector more secure than on September 11th? Absolutely yes. Is it invulnerable to a well-planned terrorist attack? The answer is no," says Eric Goetz a senior analyst with Dartmouth's Institute for Technology Security.

The report commissioned by Homeland Security says individual banks and brokerages have taken steps to protect themselves physically and financially through increased security... back-up power and data systems as well as secondary operations centers.

But systemic vulnerabilities still exist at "choke points" in the nationwide financial network... a network that processes billions of dollars worth of transactions each day - stocks... bonds... payments of all sorts.

"When you pay a check that goes through this system somehow. When you make a purchase in the supermarket this system is used. So any disruption of that system could have real... very, very serious consequences. So it is an attractive target. The question remains whether someone is actually planning to hit it."

The report discloses no secrets. All of the information the Institute reviewed was publicly available... open for anyone to obtain.

ISTS released a similar security study last December that warned of possible cascading failures in the nation's power grid... something that happened this summer.

"We don't want to say, 'We told you so,' that's not the objective here. The objective is to work together with everyone involved to help secure these critical national infrastructures... that's the key thing."

A security that's easier to achieve once you know where you are vulnerable.

Tim Lewis - Channel 3 News