ALLEGED CIA CYBERWARFARE ON FOREIGN BANKS IS DANGEROUS PRECEDENT Washington, DC -- The Financial Information Protection Association (FIPA) is denouncing information warfare against global financial infrastructures as a national policy tool. An article in Newsweek's May 31 issue discusses a secret "finding" that allegedly authorizes government hackers to "diddle with Milosevic's bank accounts" in foreign banks. According to the author, the action is controversial and is supported only in small segments of the United States' intelligence community. "When governments try to hack into banks for any reason, they send dangerous ripples through financial networks and across national boundaries," Kawika M. Daguio, FIPA executive vice president, said. "Attacking financial infrastructures injures innocent third parties all over the world in unpredictable ways. Financial cyberwarfare damages public confidence in the global financial system, establishes a bad precedent and, moreover, invites retaliation and emulation." FIPA does not take positions on the wider geopolitical issues involved in this situation. Daguio added, "The U.S. and other governments should swear-off the use of information warfare against financial infrastructures and continue to act to strengthen critical U.S. infrastructures by working in partnership with the financial community and other infrastructure owners." # # # FIPA (www.fipanet.org) is an association dedicated to helping individuals, businesses and governments work together to protect sensitive financial information while promoting commerce. Kawika M. Daguio is the Executive Vice President, Financial Information Protection Association and Principal Consultant, Robustsystems.net. He was the former Federal Representative for Payment Systems and Technology for the American Bankers Association and consultant and PKI architect for ABAecom. He was a career employee with the U.S. Department of Treasury, where he evaluated budgets for high-risk programs and managed U.S. financial institution accounts around the world. Daguio has led the financial service industry's involvement in critical infrastructure protection studies to demonstrate the industry's advanced preparedness. He negotiated drastic revisions in the U.S. Government's encryption and private network access policies and regulations in order to protect sensitive financial information. He has lectured on critical infrastructure protection at Harvard and made presentations before U.S. government commissions and agencies. Daguio has a MBA in Finance and a master's degree in public management from the University of Maryland. He earned two bachelor's degrees from the University of California.
