BoE publish high level findings of the financial sector (“sector”) cyber simulation exercise.
Exercise overview
The exercise explored the sector’s resilience to a major cyber incident impacting the UK. Alongside the Bank of England & PRA, Financial Conduct Authority and HM Treasury, participants included 29 market leading firms and Financial Market Infrastructures. Participants responded to a severe cyber-attack scenario targeting the sector, resulting from a protracted operational outage of a Global Systemically Important Bank. The exercise demonstrated the sector’s ability to respond to a dynamic and challenging disruption simulation.
The scenario was designed to test:
- The effectiveness of the sector response framework in enabling a coordinated response to a cyber attack; and
- The effectiveness of the UK Finance (financial sector trade body) communications process for developing a sector communications strategy.
Findings
The exercise highlighted a number of key takeaways:
- Co-ordination at an operational level – participants agreed that impacts and responses were coordinated and discussed effectively at the strategic level. It was highlighted however that…
