Enhancing SWIFT through Strategic Cybersecurity Measures for a North American Financial Company

Needs And Requirements:

Following several Cybersecurity breaches, this North American financial institution needed to enhance its compliance with the SWIFT Customer Security Controls Framework (CSCF). The CSCF, a part of SWIFT’s Customer Security Programme (CSP), mandates 22 essential and 9 advisory controls aimed at safeguarding local environments, detecting fraud, and fortifying community-wide cybersecurity resilience. To meet these strict requirements and ensure annual compliance, the institution sought expert support.

Main Challenges:

Compliance with Regulatory Requirements: The institution required ongoing support to stay aligned with SWIFT’s regularly updated controls and ongoing regulatory requirements.

Complex and Interconnected Technology Infrastructure: Their SWIFT environment was complex and needed to be delineated.

Difficulty in finding Skilled Cybersecurity Professionals: The company required external experts for this project.

Solution:

Governance, Risk, and Compliance: Hitachi Cyber orchestrated a disciplined response to meet SWIFT’s stringent requirements. The process started with a detailed assessment to confirm the client’s SWIFT architecture and establish the scope. Following this, a vulnerability and gap assessment was done, paving the way for strategic remediation. Hitachi Cyber then supported the client through SWIFT’s official attestation process, ensuring compliance with all controls and creating robust documentation for regulatory and internal audits.

Outcomes:

With Hitachi Cyber’s guidance, the client successfully met the compliance requirements of SWIFT’s CSCF, effectively managing the regulatory complexities of the financial sector. The collaboration enhanced the client’s cybersecurity framework, significantly bolstering their overall security posture.

Next Steps:

The institution will continue working with Hitachi Cyber for a continuous three-year period to ensure sustained compliance with SWIFT regulations. This ongoing partnership will focus on regular updates to security policies and procedures, continuous security audits, and compliance reviews to keep the institution at the leading edge of cybersecurity and regulatory compliance in the financial services industry.