{"id":21095,"date":"2023-01-26T14:30:07","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T22:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2023\/01\/26\/news-14828\/"},"modified":"2023-01-26T14:30:07","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T22:30:07","slug":"news-14828","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2023\/01\/26\/news-14828\/","title":{"rendered":"Morgan Stanley fines some employees $1M for WhatsApp, iMessage use"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Investment banking firm Morgan Stanley has punished some of its employees<\/a> with fines that topped more than $1 million for breaching compliance rules by using WhatsApp and iMessage for business communications.<\/p>\n

The fines were levied by docking previous bonuses or future pay, according to a report \u00a0in the Financial Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the fines might seem steep, Morgan Stanley itself has had to pay millions of dollars in fines for previous SEC violations related to the use of consumer messaging apps for business purposes.<\/p>\n

Last September, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)\u00a0fined big-name banks and brokerages a collective $1.8 billion<\/a>\u00a0over workers\u2019 use of private texting apps to discuss work and for not always saving those messages. The fines include $1.1 billion assessed by the SEC and a\u00a0$710 million fine from the\u00a0Commodity Futures Trading Commission<\/a>\u00a0(CFTC).<\/p>\n

Morgan Stanley was among the more than a dozen financial services firms fined and had to pay more than $200 million. In 2020, Morgan Stanley suffered a major security breach related to two senior employees in the bank\u2019s commodities\u00a0division who were using personal messaging apps.\u00a0The employees were fired<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the most recent violation of company policy against using unauthorized and unmonitored communications channels, the bank hit employees with fines that ranged from few thousand dollars to more than $1 million per person.<\/p>\n

The penalties were based on a points system that takes into account factors including the number of messages sent, the banker\u2019s seniority, and whether they received prior warnings, said people briefed on the matter, according to reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Computerworld<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Shiran Weitzman, CEO of mobile risk intelligence platform provider\u00a0Shield<\/a>, said imposing bans on popular communications applications such as WhatsApp and iMessage is a temporary solution. Employees are eventually going to use what\u2019s most popular and convenient.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s spate of financial services fines by regulators over improper use of messaging platforms was a shot across the bow \u2014 a statement that the industry needed to clean up its act, and \u201cput some order in the house,\u201d Weitzman said.<\/p>\n

The problem, however, is the banking industry and other businesses with high-touch business services often see employees simply adopt the most convenient communications platforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe requirements for WhatsApp or iMessage are similar as for any communication channel a bank is using \u2014 email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, whatever. Anyone communicating on behalf of the bank\u2026needs to be monitored,\u201d Weitzman said. \u201cWith today\u2019s technologies, it\u2019s doable. Why they haven\u2019t done it, that\u2019s a different question. I have my guesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a technology play,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard for them to [change]. They\u2019re large organizations and every time they need to apply some new technology or requirement, they need to do it on a global level.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the pandemic, bankers forced to work remotely became comfortable using popular consumer messaging platforms because their clients were also using them. They were simply more convenient and at the time financial services companies relaxed their oversight of mobile communications services.<\/p>\n

Weitzman said banks need to focus on enabling the best tools with security and monitoring software, which uses APIs to track communications and flag suspicious communications while still keeping conversations private. Though possible, banning \u00a0employees from using the latest communications technologies is not\u00a0conducive to good business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatsApp and iMessage, that\u2019s forward thinking,\u201d Weitzman said. \u201cYou need to be able to capture the message. And, the employee needs to fully acknowledge this is happening and give their consent. But I believe it will take time for this message to come down to [financial services firms], and I\u2019m afraid there will be additional fines before it does.\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/category\/security\/index.rss<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\n
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Investment banking firm Morgan Stanley has punished some of its employees<\/a> with fines that topped more than $1 million for breaching compliance rules by using WhatsApp and iMessage for business communications.<\/p>\n

The fines were levied by docking previous bonuses or future pay, according to a report \u00a0in the Financial Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the fines might seem steep, Morgan Stanley itself has had to pay millions of dollars in fines for previous SEC violations related to the use of consumer messaging apps for business purposes.<\/p>\n

To read this article in full, please click here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[11062,10643],"tags":[24585,21359,15547,10554,5897,20166,714,24580],"class_list":["post-21095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computerworld","category-independent","tag-enterprise-mobile-management","tag-financial-services-industry","tag-messaging-apps","tag-mobile","tag-privacy","tag-remote-work","tag-security","tag-small-and-medium-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}