European Central Bank to Test Cyber Resilience of Banks

The European Central Bank plans to test the cyber resilience of the euro zone’s top banks after a sharp rise in cyberattacks, including after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ECB supervisory chief Andrea Enria told a Lithuanian newspaper.

“Next year we are launching a thematic stress test on cyber resilience, which will try to test how banks are able to respond to and recover from a successful cyberattack,” Enria told Verslo žinios.

The ECB has long been warning banks to be alert for cyberattacks from Russia after the European Union passed a long series of sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

“There has been a significant increase in cyberattacks,” Enria said. “We cannot apportion this to any specific source, but it is a fact that the number of these attacks has increased since the war started.”

Enria said that part of the problem is that banks are outsourcing some of their critical IT infrastructure to outside providers or other entities in their group.

But banks can be cut off from counterparties quickly, including through sanctions, leaving them vulnerable.

Results of the test are due around the middle of 2024, Enria said.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; editing by Toby Chopra)