Cyber Threats on the U.S. Banking Industry

Could we be heading towards a cyber-hack that shutters our financial system?

It's a scary thought, but Ben Lawsky, New York's first superintendent of financial services, says our banks and insurers are susceptible to a massive cyber-attack. Lawsky says the attacks we've been seeing lately are becoming more sophisticated and more serious.

He points to the Anthem health insurance hack that affected millions of New Yorkers and even more people nationwide. Lawsky says the hack went on for nearly seven weeks before Anthem even detected hackers in its system.

The superintendent says two changes on Wall Street could make a big difference and protect us from the next big hack.

First: Banks need to make sure the third-party vendors they do business with are up to snuff. Lawsky is considering requiring those vendors to provide much better cyber-security and to demand that financial firms get better representations and warranties from those vendors.

Second: Our banks' outdated password systems need an upgrade. Lawsky suggests multi-factor authentication. Bank customers will still log in with their usernames and passwords, but they'll also receive a randomly generated password. That password will be texted to their cellphones or emailed to their computers. So even if a hacker has stolen their passwords, that hacker would need to also have their victim's cellphone or computer to break into the system.

These are just two precautions Lawsky hopes will prevent cyber-security threats from causing the next financial crisis.

--Alison Morris/Fox 5 News