Skopje, 11 September 2020
In the past years, the central banks and other financial regulators have significantly intensified the efforts for improving the cyber-security of the financial sector. However, the context imposed by the COVID-19 crisis leaves a space for increased attacks from the security area, which makes it necessary to work globally on further strengthening of mechanisms to protect the financial sector from this risk. This was a subject of the e-meeting of central bank governors hosted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), on which the Governor of the National Bank, Anita Angelovska Bazhoska actively participated.
As noted at the meeting, the working conditions after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the work from home, have resulted in a growing number of cyber-attacks in the financial sector. According to the survey (FS-ISAC), in global terms, these attacks were less than 5.000 a week in February, but increased to 200.000 a week in late April this year, and further increased by a third in the period May-June compared to the period March-April. The share of cyber-incidents in banks as a type of operational risk, is still relatively small compared to the total operational risk, yet it increases. The supervisory framework is crucial in the efforts of keeping this risks under control.
The situation in our country in terms of cyber-attacks continues to improve in the past years, with the adoption of special bylaw which requires banks to improve the security standards. Therefore, the banks are required to provide an adequate level of preparedness against the threats from the digital space, both for interbank payments and other financial activities. In this context it is extremely important to mention that our banking system is in compliance with the security standards for SWIFT. At the same time, in recent years a number of activities have been undertaken to protect other segments of the financial sector from cyber-attacks.
The global financial regulators, have already acknowledged the necessity of taking coordinated international activities that will achieve even higher degree of resilience of the financial sector to information systems attacks. The recently established Center for Cyber Resistance Coordination at the BIS, in which the National bank is involved and participates, will have a crucial role in achieving this initiative. At the same time, it is necessary to intensify the communication and cooperation between relevant institutions on national level, as well as between central banks and institutions that make up the financial systems.
Our central bank will be actively involved in dimensioning and implementation of the next global steps for further strengthening of the cyber-security in the financial sector. The participation of the governor Angelovska Bezhoska in the meeting hosted by the BIS confirms the readiness and determination of the National Bank not only to contribute to the understanding of the global trends, but also to commit to the implementation of further international standards and relevant recommendations in the operation of our financial system.