A US congressional committee is to investigate the Federal Reserve's cyber security practices, according to Reuters which recently reported that there have been more than 50 cyber breaches at the central bank between 2011 and 2015.
The White House Committee on Science, Space and Technology has written to the Fed's head Janet Yellen expressing its concern about "the Federal Reserve's cyber security posture including its ability to prevent threats from compromising highly sensitive information housed on the agency's systems".
The committee, which is tasked with oversight of the agency responsible for developing national cyber security standards, has also asked the Fed's cyber security team to turn over unredacted reports of any cyber breaches from 2009 onwards.
The same committee is also investigating the Fed's role in the cyber attack on the Bangladesh Central Bank which saw the theft of $81 million from a Federal Reserve Bank of New York account held in Bangladesh. More specifically the committee is looking into reports that the New York Fed initially rejected several requests from hackers before okaying the same requests once they were resubmitted.
Cyber security among central banks has become an issue of concern for regulators following a number of recent attacks on central banks and comments from interbank co-operative Swift suggesting it will impose stricter security standards on member banks.