Bank of England wants better cyber defences

London - Britain's banks must do more to protect themselves and the wider financial system from growing and evolving cyber crime, the Bank of England (BoE) said on Friday.

Worried by the increasing rate of attacks on banks by Internet hacks, the BoE surveyed 36 financial firms and banks in Britain and found no immediate critical shortcomings in their defences.

"But they did point to areas for improvement that we will be following up on with firms," Andrew Gracie, an executive director at the BoE in charge of winding down failed lenders, told a Cyber Defence and Security Network conference.

Britain has already conducted cyber attack simulation exercises such as Waking Shark to test responses.

A joint testing programme between the US and UK governments and authorities will start this year.

Gracie suggested that banks were still fighting the last war to some extent, such as protecting physical locations.

"These still matter. But cyber changes the game. Cyber is a dynamic, intelligent and adaptive threat. In the cyber arms race, costs are stacked in favour of the attacker, not the defender," Gracie said.

He said banks must invest in ways to identify threat and cyber attacks, a task that should not be left just to junior "technologist".

"All parts of an organisation need to understand cyber risk and their responsibilities towards improved cyber hygiene. This includes Board level engagement," Gracie said.

It was not realistic that banks and the authorities will ever build an "impermeable perimeter" but instead focus on having the capability to continually adapt to the cyber threats and respond to them.

Banks are already spending significant amounts of money on building their defences but they are not testing them on a regular basis, he said.

To help banks improve their resilience, the BoE will help them share information, Gracie said.