• silicon.com
• Management
• CIO Insights

By John Oates, 2 November 1998 00:30

NEWS An attempt by New Scotland Yard and the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (CSFI) to improve Internet security has been scuppered by the UK's high street banks. The two organisations produced the Scotland Yard Computer Crime Guidelines, and planned to establish a database of past hacking attempts to help banks improve security. The information would have been put up anonymously, and access to it strictly controlled, but a spokeswoman for the CSFI said the banks stymied the idea. "We had a series of meetings looking at issues of security, and floated the idea of a clearing house of anonymous information, but the banks are not keen to do this," she said. She claimed there is anecdotal evidence that Citibank suffered a loss in business after confessing to being hacked by a Russian team, and losing a rumoured £3m. However, a spokeswoman for Citibank denied it had suffered any damage as a result of going public on the attack. She claimed the response from its clients had been very good. She also said that all but $400,000 of the money has not been recovered. According to the CSFI spokeswoman, the banks will continue to share information through unofficial channels - most of which operate like "private dining clubs", she said.