Faced with the upsurge and the continually increasing strength of cyberattacks, a simulation exercise of a cyberattack in the finance industry will be organized by the members of the G7, the world’s major economic powers.
In the French presidency context, France will be the one that will run this test in which 24 financial authorities of the 7 members of the G7 will participate during 3 days.
Today it is no secret that the banking sector is one of the most targeted by cybercriminals [according to an IBM’s research, 19% of the attacks would aim banking institutions].
Thus, for the first time, the G7 countries organize a cyberattack cross-border simulation in early June 2019. This test is organized by the Banque de France (the central bank of France) and proposes the following scenario: a malware will be injected in a technical component widely used in the financial sector.
As indicated by Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of Economy and Finance of France “cyber threats are the proof that we need more multilateralism and cooperation between our countries”.
According to this argument, this same exercise will be conducted at the same time in the other countries, giving it a specific dimension. If other exercises of this kind have indeed already been done before, particularly by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, none of these tests was done simultaneously.
What are the results sought in this joint exercise? Firmly establishing the risks of a cyberattack’s epidemic spread, in order to be able to enhance the infrastructures security and to ensure the reactivity in case of attack and prevent a wide contagion.
