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Belgian, Dutch DPAs to investigate security of SWIFT system

Monday 18 November 2013 10:19 CET | News

The Belgian and Dutch Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) have revealed plans to investigate the security of SWIFT, which runs an international bank-messaging system, Privacy International unveils. The initiative has been taken following allegations that the NSA has accessed SWIFTs financial messaging system.

According to the source, if the NSA has cracked SWIFTs system, that would be a clear breach of the 2010 US-EU agreement that sets forth various rules the US must follow when obtaining and processing financial data stored in the EU.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is member-owned and exchanges millions of standardized financial messages for more than 10,000 financial institutions in 212 countries each day. SWIFT is based in Belgiumand has an operating center in the Netherlands, where traffic is processed and stored.

The DPAs will be conducting an investigation on whether third parties could have gained unauthorized or unlawful access to European citizens’ bank data.


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Keywords: Belgian DPA, Dutch DPA, SWIFT, NSA
Categories: Fraud & Financial Crime
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Countries: World
This article is part of category

Fraud & Financial Crime