DTCC and Oliver Wyman have published a white paper calling for the expansion of cross-industry coordingation to mitigate the systemic impact of a major cyberattack on the financial system. It drew on more than 50 experts, who cited a collective response and recovery plan, and contingent arrangements as top priorities. The white paper cites a need for additional efforts around specific cyber-scenarios and limited industry-wide testing as two key factors that could complicate the ability of banks and other financial institutions to react quickly to an attack.
Developing a collective response and recovery plan: outlining key response and recovery requirements: The industry currently lacks standards around key considerations, including the definition of resumption and recovery; the criteria for safe resumption of operations; the appropriate timeframes for resumption and recovery; and plans for communicating with the public during a large-scale cyber-attack. The proposed initiative would identify collective actions to be taken upon the detection of a large-scale cyber-attack, based on a set of standardized criteria that is tailored to specific cyber-attack scenarios. Results would be included in industry playbooks.
Establishing contingent service arrangements: given the complexity and broad scope of large-scale cyber-attacks, no single entity has all the required capabilities to address every possible attack and vulnerability. Regardless of the level of preparedness, there may be situations where a critical provider is unable to fulfil its services for an extended period, creating the need for contingent service arrangements. This initiative would explore arrangements to enable firms to continue critical operations if they or a partner suffer an outage from a cyber-attack.