The Group of Seven industrial powers said they had agreed on guidelines for protecting the global financial sector from cyber-attacks following a series of cross-border bank thefts by hackers.

    Policymakers have grown more worried about financial cyber security in the wake of numerous hacks of SWIFT, the global financial messaging system, including an $81 million theft in February from the Bangladeshi central bank's account at the New York Federal Reserve.

    The guidelines, which officials described as non-binding principles, were in a three-page document posted on the Web pages of G7 government agencies. The G7 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

    U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin told reporters in a telephone briefing that G7 officials had surveyed their existing cyber security practices and identified potential shortfalls. Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said in a statement the guidelines would address the weakest links in global cyber security. 

    The goal of the guidelines was also to get firms and regulators across the world to approach risks the same way, according to the Treasury official. Governments are also supposed to notify one another about joint threats and cooperate to contain computer system breaches, while firms are encouraged to share information and ask for help when they need it.