US banks will communicate faster with each other in the event of a cyber threat

A number of large American banks will jointly deploy a security platform that will allow the affiliated financial institutions to communicate with each other more quickly in the event of cyber threats. The response time could be reduced to a few seconds for incidents from a few hours.

Most American banks often fought against cybercrime on an individual level, giving hackers the opportunity to attack the banks one by one. In response, the companies FS-ISAC and DTCC developed the so-called Soltra Edge platform. The response time of banks could be reduced by Soltra Edge to threats from an average of seven hours to a few seconds, according to The Wall Street Journal. The security platform has been worked on for about a year and the service should be available from December 2.

The measure follows shortly after the hack of the American bank JP Morgan. Hackers allegedly obtained the data of approximately 83 million customers, making it one of the largest data breaches in history. Soltra Edge should contribute to prevent such incidents in the future. Sixteen banks would participate in the project, including major banks JP Morgan and Citigroup Inc.

According to the participating banks, Soltra Edge is not a system that guarantees security, as it would just be part of a larger package of precautions and security measures that the banks use. JP Morgan would like to double its cybersecurity budget in the coming years.