A major cyber security exercise kicks off today among the UK's major financial services providers. Monitored by the Bank of England, the Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority, each of the major banks are expected to test their ability to withstand a cyber attack.
Thousands of staff in London are taking part in the exercise, as part of which they will be bombarded with messages and placed in certain scenarios. Simulations will include how banks ensure cash remains available via their ATM networks, how they deal with a liquidity squeeze in the wholesale market and how they communicate and coordinate with each other and the authorities. Rigorous testing of mobile banking will be a major part of today’s exercise, as will penetration testing and ethical hacking.
Cyber attack has become one of the key threats to the banking system, with daily reports of such incidents, and many more going undetected or unreported.
Operation Waking Shark shows concerted preventative action by the government and financial services industry to prevent such malicious attacks. The first exercise of this scale took place in 2011, when Credit Suisse and the then Financial Services Authority moved to better the sector’s preparedness to respond to a future cyber attack.
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