Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, gave the following statement at a Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions hearing entitled, “Cyber Threats, Consumer Data, and the Financial System.”

Thank you very much, Chair Perlmutter, for holding this important hearing on cybersecurity.

Financial institutions have long been a top target for cybercriminals. Several years ago, Equifax experienced one of the largest cyberattacks, exposing the sensitive and personal identifiable information of nearly 150 million Americans. Government agencies and institutions are observing an alarming increase in the volume and sophistication of cyberattacks. According to one report, banks and credit unions experienced a 1,318 percent increase in ransomware attacks during the first part of this year.

So, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on ways we can strengthen cybersecurity in the financial sector, including understanding how small institutions, like minority depository institutions, utilize third-party vendors to provide core processing and software, and what vulnerabilities arising from those partnerships we need to address.

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