Industry collaboration is continuing to strengthen to combat online malfeasance.

The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) — a global cyber intelligence sharing community solely focused on financial services — recently announced that global cyber intelligence sharing among its member financial firms increased by 60% in the period from August 2020 to August 2021.

The organization said two areas drove the rise in intelligence sharing: supply chain and ransomware threats. FS-ISAC indicated large scale threats resulted in record-breaking peaks of intelligence sharing across all regions: North America; Latin America; Europe, UK, Middle East and Africa; and Asia Pacific.

To increase global collaboration and encourage cybersecurity talent development, FS-ISAC launched its Global Leaders awards. This year, cybersecurity professionals from American Express, Banco Falabella Chile, Australia’s IAG, and UBS were recognized with the award for outstanding cyber intelligence sharing efforts.

“With the increase in sophisticated cross-border cyber criminal campaigns against the financial sector and its supply chain, sector-wide global collaboration has become a risk management imperative,” FS-ISAC chief executive officer Steven Silberstein said in a news release.

In addition to helping detect and prevent cyberattacks, FS-ISAC pointed out that sharing by larger financial institutions based in markets with stricter and more comprehensive regulation helps strengthen the cybersecurity programs of smaller or less resourced firms around the world, benefitting the full financial ecosystem.

“Intelligence and best practice sharing across our community and platforms has reached new heights, spurred by the high-profile events of the last 12 months. We commend the members who go above and beyond to protect the financial system at large,” Silberstein continued.

Member nominations for the accolades took place from the last week of March until June 30. Nominations were vetted by FS-ISAC’s Global Intelligence Office for impact and quality of contributions and narrowed down to three finalists per region.

The FS-ISAC board of directors, composed of chief information security officers at leading financial firms around the world, voted on one winner from each region.

Executives from each of the award-winning firms shared their reactions.

Fred Gibbins is chief information security officer at American Express.

“American Express is deeply interconnected with the other players in the global financial system,” Gibbins said. “We believe it is our critical responsibility to share intelligence and best practices with our peers to help the industry to protect and defend against emerging cyber threats. We are honored to be recognized by FS-ISAC and appreciate the collaboration between all the members for our collective protection.”

Juan Carrasco is head of cybersecurity at Banco Falabella Chile.

“In Latin America we benefit from intelligence that is shared by global US and Europe-based firms as well as from our neighboring countries,” Carrasco said. “By monitoring attacks in Argentina and Brazil, we were able to predict and thwart a cyber attack in Chile. This attests to the power of cross-border intelligence sharing in mitigating cyber risk.”

Craig Hall is threat analytic cell manager at IAG.

“Meaningful threat intelligence gives our security team at IAG an advantage over the attackers and reduces cyber risk,” Hall said. “Recently, we were able to identify a threat actor who methodically attacked Australian financial institutions in alphabetical order throughout the day. By sharing the criminal’s tactics, members throughout the region knew when they were likely to get hit and were therefore able to defend against attacks.”

Corsin Camichel is cyber threat intelligence regional lead at UBS.

“As a global firm, UBS monitors the global cybersecurity landscape to proactively detect and mitigate risks,” Camichel said “Sharing intelligence and best practices with our peers and regional counterparts is fundamental to staying ahead of emerging cyber threats. I am honored by this award and will continue to share with my colleagues and peers around the world.”