A group of Europe’s most important financial infrastructures has announced a new joint initiative which will see cross-organisational sharing of information on vital cybersecurity threats.

The aim of the initiative is to better protect the savings of European citizens from cyber threats.

It is the first time that the Euro Cyber Resilience Board for pan-European Financial Infrastructures (ECRB), chaired by the European Central Bank (ECB), along with Europol and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), have taken joint action to combat cyber security risks.

The core objectives of the initiative, known as Cyber Information and Intelligence Sharing Initiative (CIISI-EU), are to protect the financial system by preventing, detecting and responding to cyberattacks; to facilitate the sharing of information and good practices between financial infrastructures; and to raise awareness of cybersecurity threats.

Commenting on the initiative, ECB Executive Board member and ECRB Chair, Fabio Panetta said, ‘This is the first time that major financial infrastructures, Europol and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) have jointly taken steps against cyber risk.’

He said, ‘We hope this will be an inspiring model for other jurisdictions to tackle one of the biggest threats of our time. Cybercriminals are increasingly stealing money, and therefore sharing information will help us to prevent attacks and ultimately protect people’s money.’

In the coming months, the ECB will publish the framework for the CIISI-EU sharing initiative to encourage other jurisdictions to follow suit.

According to the European Central bank ‘Cyber threats pose a serious risk to the stability of the European and global financial system. Cyber threats are borderless, and the capabilities of the attackers are constantly evolving, threatening to disrupt the interconnected global financial systems. To successfully combat cyber risk, financial infrastructures need to actively participate in information and intelligence sharing arrangements and collaborate with trusted stakeholders within the industry as a whole.’

News of the initiative follows the announcement by Mastercard Europe earlier this month that it is developing its first European Cyber Resilience Centre, to drive collaboration between both public and private sectors, as well as regulatory bodies to further support enterprise resilience in the region.

Located in Waterloo, Belgium at Mastercard’s European Headquarters, the centre is the first of its kind that the company has invested in outside of North America.

The Centre will help drive better prevention and mitigation practices against international cybercrime and wider security threats. Bringing together both cyber and physical security experts, it will work with various national cyber intelligence centres, industry groups, law enforcement agencies and central banks across Europe including the ECRB, ECCFI and Europol.

(Image by Will Spaetiel via creativecommons.org)