0 111 3er cf the niteh Suntan EQI 20515 April 6 2017 Secretary Steven T Mnuchin US Department of the Treasury 1500 Avenue NW Washington DC 20220 Dear Secretary Mnuchin We write to you today to express our concerns about the rapid spread of cyber-attacks on the American banking and nancial service industries by foreign actors It was reported earlier this week that Lazarus a hacking operation connected to the North Korean regime targeted banks in 18 different countries to illicitly fund the development of North Korea s long-range nuclear missile system Among those harmed by these attacks was the Bangladeshi Central Bank which had $81 million stolen from their account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last year These high pro le attacks are of a shift in North Korean hacking strategy from destroying systems to directly acquiring funds Today roughly 2 000 hackers in the employ of the North Korean regime live and work abroad to conduct cyber-attacks against banks and nancial services groups other businesses and defectors South Korean cybersecurity experts have detected an increase in ransomware attacks on defectors and businesses in South Korea This is deeply troubling Cyber-attacks have become lucrative business According to the FBI cyber-criminals made over $1 billion in 2016 through ransomware attacks alone The gains 'om such attacks md the development of increasingly sophisticated malware and other next generation cyber attack tools For rogue states like North Korea we are concerned that these attacks will help fund missile tests and the development of nuclear weapons As Congress continues to investigate our nation s exposure to state sanctioned cyber-attacks on critical national infrastructure including our election systems and banks it is imperative that the Treasury Department do all it can to keep our banking sector safe from these threats As the Ranking Members of the Oversight and Government Reform Subconmuttee on Information Technology and the Intelligence Subcommittee on Cybersecurity we will continue to monitor this situation We look forward to working on legislation to keep the Treasury Department the Federal Reserve System and all members of the banking sector safe from cyber threats We request that you brief us on the work that the Treasury Department is doing to partner with the private sector to deter mitigate and eliminate cybersecurity threats posed by malicious actors including nation-state adversaries Sincerely FM Robin L Kelly Diuiember of Congress PRINTED 0N RECYCLED PAPER                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu