Thursday, February 27, 2020

Ransomware Attacks - Are Global Market Players Still Unarmed?

Ransomware Attacks - Are Global Market Players Still Unarmed?


More than 600 participants from 180 financial institutions and government organizations from Australia, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore and the USA participated in cybersecurity exercises to test the effectiveness of their response to ransomware viruses.
Among them are companies specializing in securities transactions, banks, asset management companies, the Financial Services Information Exchange and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), as well as financial market service providers.

Sifma President and CEO Kenneth Bentsen notes: “The Quantum Dawn V program has enabled key public and private organizations in the world to verify in practice the coordination and application of incident response protocols, both inside and outside their countries, to ensure smooth operation financial markets in a series of industry-wide global cyberattacks. ”

Test participants tried to repel a conditional ransomware virus attack on one of the backbone banks of the United States, and then neutralize attempts to destroy similar financial institutions in Asia and the UK.

Organizations participating in the program did not leave real places of their physical location, which made the exercises even more realistic and allowed the use of real communication systems, such as e-mail and telephone.

The results of the exercises showed that none of the structures that participated in the program had the necessary resources to protect markets from cyber threats.

“These exercises focused on the fact that the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks has increased, as well as the urgent need for the efficient allocation of resources to ensure security in financial institutions,” said Kenneth Bentsen. - The financial services industry is the main target that tens of thousands of cyber attacks target daily. Harmonizing regulation and supervision to reduce duplicate or redundant rules would allow firms to devote more resources to security and better protect investors. ”

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