Data and information management

Belvia Gray, Public Finance Leader at Baker Tilly, talks about the firm's efforts and focus on bringing the industry together on cyber security threats, succession planning and more.

The public finance industry is addressing cyber threats, which became clearer with last year's hack of White Lake Township's bond closing.

White Lake Township, Michigan, is facing legal action on two fronts: one of them related to the hack of its bond deal closing last year, the other a civil suit. 

The offering document for a White Lake Township bond sale sheds more light on the hack criminals used to intercept funds between the underwriter and borrower.

Data-driven local governments and other public agencies might sound like a complex subject or something difficult to attain, but that could not be further from the truth.

It's hard enough convincing local governments to spend money on cyber insurance that covers ransomware attacks, said Omid Rahmani, public finance cybersecurity lead at Fitch Ratings. The new and very specific threat of a hacked financing process, is "absolutely" underappreciated by the public finance industry.

"This matter is now under active investigation by federal authorities and impacted financial institutions, who are coordinating with the White Lake Township Police Department," said Daniel Keller, chief of police, in a statement.

ICE's and MarketAxess's networks are "complementary," said Peter Borstelmann, president of ICE Bonds, as the former is "deep and rich" in the retail wealth segment, while the latter is "deep and rich" in the institutional space.

A new classification scheme would allow market participants, both on the buy and sell sides, to correctly identify the source and nature of credit risk in their holdings and to aggregate such risk into meaningful sectors that share common risk drivers.

The threat of cybercrime against municipalities continues to mutate into more sophisticated and life-threatening schemes, say economists and rating agencies.