Bank of England tests financial sector’s cyber strength
If you go down in cybersecurity today (9 November), you’re sure of a big surprise, if you go down in the UK today, you’d better be ready and wise.
The Bank of England (BoE), with other UK financial authorities (HM Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority – FCA), is conducting a one-day exercise designed to test the financial sector’s resilience to a major cyber incident impacting the UK.
Be strong for me
Some of the big banks and about 40 companies will be involved.
The BoE says: “This exercise forms a vital part of the sector wide biennial process that seeks to ensure the industry is prepared for – and can respond effectively to – any major disruption stemming from a cyber incident, protecting the financial system on which the public relies.
“The exercise will help authorities and firms identify improvements to our collective response arrangements, improving the resilience of the sector as a whole.”
The UK is not alone of course. Last month, over in the Netherlands, the Dutch led the defence in a simulated cyberassault that mirrored the infamous WannaCry ransomware attack of 2016.
It’s also not always about cybersecurity when it comes to robustness in the UK. Back in July, the BoE, Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the FCA were calling on banks and firms to up their A-game and give feedback on operational resilience.
As they often do, the trio published a joint discussion paper (DP) on an approach to improve the strength of firms and financial market infrastructures (FMIs).
