All the "cool" secrets (wire transfers and the like) don't get anywhere NEAR the internet. The Federal Reserve System has a separate (yes, encrypted) network for sharing data.
A touchy spot? Interestingly enough, the Fedwire network was only recently encrypted. The following information comes from a GAO report _Electronic Funds Transfer: Oversight of Critical Banking Systems Should Be Strengthened_. GAO/IMTEC-90-14. To get a fre copy, call 202-512-6000 or fax 301-258-4066. And if you pay US taxes, you've already paid for it! In a reply letter from the Board of Governers of the Federal Reserve System, they talk about FRCS-80, the Federal Reserve Communications System, implemented in 1982. In September 1989 a request for proposal went out to encrypt the backbone network. Encryption was supposed to have been completed in the first half of 1990. (I hear that it slipped. Given that FRCS-80 was implemented in '82, are we surprised?) I understand that Fedwire-II is now in operation, but I don't know if that's new hardware and/or new software. Here's the curious thing. DES came out in 1976, and was supposed to be secure for financial communications. FRCS-80 had plenty of opportunity to use DES, but didn't, for at least the first eight years of operation. Hmm. And save the conspiracy theories about the Federal Reserve for alt.conspiracy, please. Eric