In the wake of the theft of $81 million from Bangladesh's central bank, President Barack Obama has been urged by six U.S. senators to make cybercrime a top priority at this weekend's Group of 20 summit in China, a letter obtained by Reuters said.
The cyberattack on Bangladesh Bank's systems occurred in February when hackers used the SWIFT banking network in an attempt to obtain nearly $1 billion from an account held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The letter obtained by Reuters suggests that the event has increased concern amongst US lawmakers, saying it wants President Obama to encourage leaders at the summit to commit to a "coordinated strategy to combat cybercrime at critical financial institutions."
"Our financial institutions are connected in order to facilitate global commerce, but cyber criminals – whether independent or state-sponsored – imperil this international system in a way few threats have," the senators wrote in the letter to Obama. "We strongly urge you to work with your counterparts and prioritize this discussion at the G20 leaders level in September."
The news of the letter comes after a recent research study by Cybersecurity Ventures, which found that the global cost of cybercrime could reach $6 trillion by 2021. Inevitably, the increase in cyberattacks is going to directly impact spending on cyber security, products and insurance, with spending expected to exceed $1 trillion between 2017 and 2021.
Brokers and agents working in this rapidly expanding space have a good opportunity to become indsitry leaders in the next half decade. The first step to success will be informing clients all sizes that cyber coverage is a necessity and not a luxury.
