Cyberrisk was one of the top five concerns of the financial services industry, according to the latest Systemic Risk Barometer survey released Thursday by The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). A record 84 percent of respondents cited cyber attacks as major worry, according to the survey, with 33 percent of those banks ranking cyber-attacks as the number one systemic risk to the broader economy (up from 24 percent in March 2014).
The DTCC represents large banks that push capital through the market, including payment systems, securities depositories, counterparties, securities settlement firms and trade repositories.
“No institution – large or small, public or private – is immune to a potential cyber-attack,” said Mark Clancy, DTCC Corporate Information Security Officer and CEO of Soltra in a statement. “All of us need to become agile in response to these rapidly evolving threats by being able to share information about attackers’ activities between multiple stakeholders and shifting the model from individual institution’s static defenses to dynamic community responses.”
Cyber attacks have reached a crescendo over the past year as large companies, such as Home Depot, Target, Neiman Marcus and others – were the subject of attacks that led to significant data breaches
Of more concern to the DTCC and banks are incidents that affect the financial markets, such as the April 2013 cyber attack that drove down the Dow Jones Industrial Average by more than 100 points after the Associated Press’s Twitter account was hacked, and issued a false news alert that there had been an attack on the White House.
A worldwide survey by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International cited in the DTCC survey says 93 percent of financial services organizations experienced various cyber threats in the 12-month period between April 2013 and May 2014.