MAS highlights the need to Manage Cyber Risks
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has revealed the key takeaways from its Cyber Security Advisory Panel meeting, which highlighted the need to strengthen the cyber risk culture in financial institutions, enhance cyber monitoring and surveillance capabilities, and better manage cybersecurity risks in IT supply chains.
The first key observation raised by the discussion was the acknowledgement of the potential for poor risk culture to contribute to occurrences of cyber incidents. Members of the Cyber Security Advisory Panel (CSAP) advised that the board and senior management of financial institutions should set clear expectations for cyber risk culture, and subsequently monitoring and assessing how well the desired risk management culture is operating across the organisation.
The CSAP members drew attention to the need for financial institutions to maintain good situational awareness of the cyber threat landscape, citing monitoring and awareness as an important tool in countering cyberattacks.
Panel members encouraged the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to strengthen cyber monitoring and surveillance capabilities in the financial sector. It was also recommended that the MAS deepen cyber intelligence-sharing networks with both global and local partners.
Another key takeaway was the targeting and exploitation of IT supply chains by cyber criminals, an increasing prominent trend. CSAP members recommended that financial institutions should have in place an effective multi-layered defence with measures, such as source code reviews, system integrity checks, and network anomaly detection, to mitigate these risks.
The CSAP comprises of leading international cybersecurity experts, with 7 panel members attending the meeting. Panellists include representatives from Amazon, Microsoft, Standard Chartered and PayPal. Their role is to provide the MAS with global perspectives on evolving cyber threats and sharing their insights on the best strategies to address those risks.
The members of the CSAP are to meet with the CEOs of key financial institutions in Singapore alongside the MAS’ Minister-in-charge of Cybersecurity, Mr S Iswaran, to participate in a half-day dialogue on how these industry leaders can minimise the risk posed to their companies by cyber security threats.
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