Help is on the way for U.S. banks, which are perennially under attack by cyber criminals.

No less than the National Security Agency (NSA) has begun assisting banks by providing intelligence about foreign hackers, according to Reuters. One company in particular that has received information already: Nasdaq OMX, which suffered a breach of a supposedly secure service that hosts confidential information for use by corporate boards. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also been providing information to companies. Indeed, the bureau has reportedly already helped avert major attacks by identifying various network vulnerabilities.

These sorts of public-private initiatives are increasingly imperative in the wake of so-called advanced persistent threats (APTs), which involve state actors playing a role in sophisticated hacking schemes. These APT attacks exploded on the public stage in 2011, as companies like Google and RSA fell victim. Exactly which counties are behind APT attacks has never been made clear, but experts and company executives have pointed to China, which denies any state involvement.

In the end, the stakes are sufficiently high that the U.S. government needs to be involved, a decision we applaud. As of now, the NSA can only provide assistance if banks make a request. Why a bank wouldn't do that is unclear. They need every weapon available in this new era of information warfare.

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