Identifying the threats and security emerging from cyberspace, Reserve Bank of India has appealed lenders to place a cybersecurity policy immediately to combat the issue. “It is essential to enhance the resilience of the banking system by improving the current defenses in addressing cyber risks. Banks should immediately put in place a cyber-security policy elucidating the strategy containing an appropriate approach to combat cyber threats.” the RBI said in a statement.
The Indian central bank have also requested banks to identify potential risks under, low, moderate, high and very high categories, and also report any unusual cybersecurity incident to the RBI.
According to the RBI, the new cybersecurity policy should also reflect the bank’s information technology policy. It also mandated continuous surveillance, “Testing for vulnerabilities at reasonable intervals of time is very important. The nature of cyber-attacks are such that they can occur at any time and in a manner that may not have been anticipated. Hence, it is mandated that a SOC (Security Operations Centre) be set up at the earliest, if not yet been done. It is also essential that this Centre ensures continuous surveillance and keeps itself regularly updated on the latest nature of emerging cyber threats,” the statement added.
According to the central bank, the recent attacks in the financial sector called for an ‘urgent’ need to have a robust cybersecurity technology in place. This was after the $81 million being stolen from Bangladesh central bank account with the New York Federal reserve.
