In the concern of the industries vulnerability to hacking, the European Union (EU) is mulling over testing the banks defense system against simulated cyber attacks.
In recent years, the frequency of cyber attacks against banks have amplified considerably, where the hackers are finding different ways of targeting the bank apart from illegitimately obtaining customers account details. The case of Bangladesh Central Bank is still fresh, when in the February of 2016, the hackers invaded the system and gained access to the SWIFT international transactions network taking away $81 Million.
The humongous frauds taking place have cautioned global regulators for tightening their securities, and many countries have also been conducting checks on lender’s security systems.
However, the complex cyber attacks attacks refused to cease. SWIFT confirmed the same in a letter to client banks.
As per December warnings of European Banking Authority (EBA), banks “are struggling to demonstrate their ability to cope with the rising threat of intruders gaining unauthorized access to their critical systems and data.”
It appears that the EU-wide stress test is going to be the executive’s next step for boosting security. The European executive commission is gathering more ways to curb the cyber attacks. A commission officer told Reuters;
These include cyber-threat information sharing or penetration and resilience testing of systems.
The Commission is studying whether EU-wide tests would be good enough in establishing cyber security. EBA, which is in-charge of stress testing the bloc’s bank will soon release the tests they re planning to exercise by the mid 2018.
EBA expressed their concern stating that European Banks rely on the digital infrastructure which is both “rigid and outdated”, which is why the executives are considering a switch to newer technologies for a better security.
Blockchain, the technology behind the cutting edge virtual currency, Bitcoin, is also being strictly monitored in Brussels “to establish the advantages and possible risks”. As per the World Economic Forum’s report, over 1 billion euros have already been invested in the blockchain startup.
Last week The EU agency for network and information security (ENISA) reported that the technology offered new breakthroughs and also cut costs, however, it still poses cyber security issues, mostly in decentralized networks.
