Israel on Thursday led a 10-country drill of a major cyber attack on the global financial system in a bid to increase cooperation that could help minimize any possible damage to markets and banks.
The simulated “war game,” as it was called by Israel’s Finance Ministry and planned over the past year, ran over 10 days, with sensitive data appearing on the Dark Web.
The exercise also used fake news that on stage caused chaos in world markets and a bank run.
The simulation – triggered by what officials called “sophisticated” brokers – featured various types of attacks that impacted global currency and bond markets, liquidity, data integrity, and transactions between importers and exporters.
“These events are creating havoc on financial markets,” said a narrator of a video shown to participants as part of the simulation and seen by Reuters.
Israeli government officials said these types of threats are possible after numerous cyber attacks on large companies, and that the only way to contain any damage is through global cooperation, as current cybersecurity is not always strong enough.
“Attackers are 10 steps ahead of defenders,” said Micha Weis, head of financial cybersecurity at Israel’s Ministry of Finance.
Participants in the initiative, called “Fuerza Colectiva”, included Treasury officials from Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Thailand, as well as representatives from the Monetary Fund. International, the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements.
The narrator of the video in the simulation said that governments were under pressure to clarify the impact of the attack, which was paralyzing the global financial system.
“Banks are calling for emergency liquidity aid in multitudes of currencies to end the chaos as counterparties withdraw their funds and limit access to liquidity, leaving banks in disarray and ruin,” said the narrator. . Participants discussed multilateral policies to respond to the crisis.