cyber threats

Financial Firms Must Adapt To Cyber Threat

Financial institutions need to adapt to the challenge posed by the risk of cyber attack, according to a Bank of England executive director, with a need for board level engagement and regular testing of the people, processes and technology put in place to deal with the threat.

The Bank of England, its Prudential Regulation Authority and the independent Financial Conduct Authority have been intensifying their efforts to make sure financial institutions are able to cope with the threat of disruption to their operations or even the broader market infrastructure.

Cyber attacks on the likes of Sony Pictures, which on Friday forced Sony Corp to request an extension to the deadline for the submission of its third-quarter report due to serious disruption of network systems, has only served to bring the matter of resilience into closer scrutiny.

In the cyber arms race, costs are stacked in favour of the attacker, not the defender. To meet the challenge, organisations need to have policies and processes that are dynamic, intelligent and adaptive too. This means investment in capability to identify threats and detect cyber attacks