4,000 Financial Firms To Get Urgent, Automatic Security Alerts

With the number of cyber attacks continuing to rise, top security watchdog Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) has announced a partnership with MessageOne to provide urgent fully automated security alerts to its 4,000-member firms.The FS-ISAC was launched by the financial industry in 1999 under a presidential directive for the public and private sectors to share information about physical and cyber security threats to help protect U.S. critical infrastructure.

The watchdog, which works with the U.S.'s biggest financial institutions as well as the U.S. Treasury, filters and shares security information from financial services providers, commercial security firms, law enforcement as well as federal, state and local government agencies.

Members who receive MessageOne's AlertFind will be notified of a new threat automatically by their preferred method - cell phone, email, home phone etc. The system, which can tell the difference between a real person and voice mail, can deliver a spoken electronic or recorded message. Members will receive recommendations for solutions and can also join conference calls about the threats.

"We've recently seen a lot of denial-of-service attacks, and phishing attacks. These more sinister attacks have become more prevalent in the last year, and lots of times they're directed at banks," says Bill Nelson, president and CEO for FS-ISAC.

"Specific cyber threats from overseas organized crime units, and intense weather conditions that have crippled cities and regional power outages are just a few recent events that can have a real impact on our members. AlertFind enables us to easily communicate whenever one or all of our members might be affected by a threat or emergency," he adds.

Nelson says beyond having good authentication technology, constant awareness of threats is the best way to protect yourself from cyber attacks. "The bar keeps getting raised. But every time a problem is reported, there is a new solution. We share information all the time," he says. Melanie Rodier has worked as a print and broadcast journalist for over 10 years, covering business and finance, general news, and film trade news. Prior to joining Wall Street & Technology in April 2007, Melanie lived in Paris, where she worked for the International Herald ... View Full Bio