Banks should tighten cyber security: Dpty Gov, RBI

The Dollar Business Bureau

The latest cyber theft attempt in a state-owned lender’s offshore account indicates the strong need of vigilance on sensitive remittance services, said R Gandhi, Reserve Bank Deputy Governor, on Friday.

Recently, the Union Bank of India had informed that it foiled a cyber theft bid in its US dollar Nostro account. No financial bearing existed as the attempt was foiled.

Gandhi, redrawing the attention on the cyber incident at the annual summit 'Cyber & Network Security', stated that no monetary loss occurred in the incident, but it was too early to say how it all happened. He emphasized the need for vigilance on delicate systems like remittances, particularly on configuration of the systems and its management.

He further stated that the banks should detect such incidents on time, for which addition of robust crisis management strategy is important.

Nonstop process of awareness, education, re-enforcement, trials, tests and upgrades are compulsory to ensure continuous cyber vigilance, he added.

Gandhi further stated that cyber vigilance is the area which is generally neglected and is exploited by cyber-baiters.

Suitable control framework, timely security patches to the IT interfaces, reconciliation of transactions in real-time basis and supervision of transactions are a few preventive measures to avoid cyber-attacks, he added.

Emphasizing on the need to beef-up the cyber security for banks, Gandhi stated that RBI has not only been proactive, but has also shown involvement in congruence and consultation of security framework in the banking system.

From the time when RBI issued guidance on computerization, it was aware of the role played by IT to meet customer needs and the opportunities and threats, including cyber-attacks, in using technology.

The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology has a system to assemble information to combat cyber threats and pass the information amongst the chief information security officer of banks, he said.