A report from the Reserve Bank of Australia has highlighted a cyber-attack on the nation’s banking system is “inevitable” and could result in significant instability and distress in the financial system.
The RBA said in its Financial Stability Review, released Friday, that while the impact of incidents to date has been limited, “given the large number of attempts, a significant cyber event that has the potential for systemic implications is at some point inevitable.
“Whether such an attack could result in systemic financial instability will depend not only on the part of the financial institution or system impacted and potential network effects, but also the cyber resilience of that institution and financial system. In Australia and internationally, financial institutions and regulators are focusing on strengthening the resiliency of individual institutions and the financial system to a substantial cyber-attack”, the report stated.
”While the impact of incidents to date has been limited, given a large number of attempts, a significant cyber event that has the potential for systemic implications and could lead to widespread stress and result in a loss of public confidence in the financial system,” said Paul Haskell-Dowland, Associate Dean for Computing and Security at Edith Cowan University.
