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Washington, D.C., 9 April 2025— The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the U.S. agency of the government that is responsible for supervising and regulating the national banking system, issued new guidelines designed to increase the security of financial systems. The new guidelines are intended to deal with new risks and ensure that banks are able to effectively manage their capital during times of economic uncertainty. Additionally, a U.S. regulator overseeing federally chartered banks discovered that a cyberattack enabled unauthorized access to executive emails and raised alarming cybersecurity concerns within the organization.
In February 2025, the OCC discovered a breach that compromised accounts used for administrative functions within its mail system. The OCC discovered that hackers had accessed extremely sensitive emails of top employees and executives.
In a public announcement on February 26th, the OCC announced that it was able to identify and isolate the security breach. We immediately removed the affected email accounts and reported the incident to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) for further investigations.
Rodney E. Hood, the Acting Comptroller, addressed the security breach and stated that “long-held organisational and structural deficiencies” caused the breach. Hood emphasised the need for accountability within the organisation and confirmed that OCC is conducting a comprehensive investigation of its security policies.
The OCC has not yet revealed the attackers’ identities or the exploited vulnerabilities, but it has said that there is no evidence of any direct impact on the financial system.
Experts in the field of security say this incident underscores the risk financial regulators face. The breach also underscores the need for urgent investments in the government’s IT infrastructure.
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