Israel's banks will cooperate with the Israel Security Agency (Shin-Bet) on information security, under a new directive by Supervisor of Banks Rony Hizkiyahu.
The directive states that banks will provide the Security Agency with information about unusual incidents and breakdowns in their IT systems, and any other pertinent information about these systems. The Bank of Israel Banking Supervision Department will be responsible for passing on such information from the banks to the Security Agency, at its discretion.
The Bank of Israel says that the information passed on will not include details that could identify bank customers or groups of customers. The Bank of Israel adds that the Security Agency promises not to disclose information obtained to third parties.
Israel's commercial banks are frequent targets for hacking, phishing, impersonation, fraud, and identity theft via their computer systems in order to obtain customers' passwords, bank account numbers, and credit details.
The Banking Supervision Department said, "It is very important for the banks' computer to be constantly on guard against hostile and unauthorized attacks." It added that it believes that cooperation with Security Agency IT specialists will improve the security of the banks' critical systems.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 10, 2009
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