News Recap: World Federation of Stock Exchanges to Combat Cyber Attacks
In light of cyber attacks over the past twelve months, the world’s largest exchanges have formed a committee to prevent against cyber attacks. The purpose of the committee will be to establish and communicate global best practices regarding information security.
Michelle Price reported in the Wall Street Journal, “Nasdaq OMX’s chief information security officer, Mark Graff, is to chair a new working group that’s been set up by the World Federation of Stock Exchanges to try to combat the rise of cyber attacks on financial market infrastructure.” Price noted that the group was established after research found “53% of exchanges had suffered a cyber-security attack during the previous 12 months.”
In Bloomberg Businessweek, Nandini Sukumar reported that “hackers have targeted computers at exchanges including CME Group, the world’s largest bourse operator, and Nasdaq.” Fox Business reporter Matt Egan wrote that this level of disruption “on a major exchange like the New York Stock Exchange would mark a major coup for cyber actors.” He recounted a recent exercise in which “white hat” hackers were assigned to find and expose cyber vulnerabilities of the U.S. equity markets. They succeeded and even found a way to impact market performance. Cyber security professionals, Egan reported, believe ”the committee announced on Thursday is long overdue.”
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