Bank of America is now spending over $1bn a year on cybersecurity, CEO Brian Moynihan said in an interview this week.
The company’s centralised global information-security unit has boosted spending in recent years to more than $1bn annually. This amount is allocated to staff and technology to bolster cyber defences.
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By GlobalDataBank of America is devoting more resources to fighting cyberattacks after seeing a jump in threats amid the pandemic.
“I became CEO 11 and a half years ago, and we probably spent three to $400m [per year] and we’re up over a billion now,” Moynihan said on CNBC.
The lender is constantly assessing threats from individuals, groups and governments, and is also scanning the horizon to protect itself against an “Armageddon scenario”, chief operations and technology officer Cathy Bessant said in an earlier press briefing.
“Criminals are by definition very crafty, very entrepreneurial – and times of stress produce opportunities,” Bessant told journalists during a virtual briefing this week. “There’s no question that the rate and pace of attacks, and the nature of attacks, has grown dramatically.”
2020 saw a 15% jump in banks’ cyber spending
Banks, brokers, insurers, and other finance companies have ramped up spending on cybersecurity for at least four years as services move online and attacks escalate.
Cyber spending jumped 15% in 2020, according to a Deloitte & Touche survey. That equates to almost $1bn for each of the largest US banks.
The pandemic accounted for some of that increase, forcing firms to bolster defences as staff worked from home and as more customers embraced online products and services.
About 64% of finance executives expect cybersecurity budgets to keep rising, a separate Deloitte survey showed.
Biden has issued an executive order amid threats to critical infrastructure
President Joe Biden signed an executive order last month aimed at improving US cybersecurity defences, an action that follows a string of cyberattacks on the federal government and private companies.
The action came amid a crippling ransomware attack that forced the shutdown of a major US petroleum pipeline, leading to concern of widespread gas shortages along the East Coast.
The attack, blamed on a hacker group known as the Darkside, reignited concerns about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure.
Executive orders are not legislation; they require no approval from Congress, and Congress cannot simply overturn them. They are the president’s primary tools for the management and mobilisation of the vast resources of the federal government.
