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Stress test gauged how banks would respond to and recover from severe but plausible cybersecurity incident 109 banks tested, of which 28 underwent more extensive testing Results to feed into ECB’s 2024 Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process
The European Central Bank (ECB) is set to conduct its first thematic stress tests on cyber resilience to evaluate how well banks can handle and recover from a cyber attack declaring there was “room for improvement.
109 supervised banks collaborated to conduct stress tests. These tests will simulate a scenario where a cyberattack disrupts the daily operations of each bank. The evaluation will focus on assessing the banks’ response and recovery measures. This includes activating emergency procedures, implementing contingency plans, and restoring normal operations. Unlike traditional stress tests, this exercise emphasizes the banks’ ability to respond to and recover from a cyberattack, rather than just preventing it.
28 banks will be assessed to see how well they can handle a cyberattack. They will have to share more information about their plans for dealing with such attacks. These banks represent a variety of business models and locations, which gives a good overall idea of the banking system in the euro area. It also helps coordinate supervisory activities effectively.
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To test their response to the scenario, banks had to show their ability to:
activate their crisis response plans, including internal crisis management procedures and business continuity plans;
communicate with all external stakeholders such as customers, service providers and law enforcement agents;
run an analysis to identify what services would be affected and how;
implement mitigation measures, including workarounds that would help the bank to operate during the time needed to fully recover IT systems.
To test their ability to recover from the scenario, banks had to show they could:
activate their recovery plans, including restoring backed-up data and aligning with critical third-party service providers on how to respond to the incident;
ensure that affected areas were recovered and up and running;
implement lessons learnt, for example by reviewing their response and recovery plans.
Lloyd’s of London, a big insurance marketplace, warned in October that a major cyber attack on a key payments system could cost the global economy $3.5 trillion.
The ECB has been proactive in conducting stress tests to assess different risks in the financial system. They have examined interest rate risk sensitivity in 2017, liquidity risk sensitivity in 2019, and climate risk in 2022. These tests show the ECB’s dedication to ensuring the financial system’s strength in the face of evolving challenges.
