The Treasury Department is warning about potential vulnerabilities caused by financial institutions relying on a small number of providers for cloud-computing services, convening a group of U.S. officials to study the issue, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Treasury said in a report to be released Wednesday that banks and other financial institutions are increasingly using remote computing services known as the cloud, part of a broader shift in how businesses manage their technology needs. Many are using these services for software such as email, and a smaller number are relying on it for more sensitive infrastructure such as data storage. The report says that many financial institutions buy cloud-computing services from a small number of businesses, particularly Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. That means a technical breakdown or cyberattack on one of those companies could have broad consequences for the financial-services sector, the department said. “A large system failure or data breach at one of these [cloud-service providers] could impact multiple financial institutions or U.S. consumers, though there are open questions about the extent of that impact,” the report says.
