Companies need all staff to be more vigilant as cyber crime rises, and should not solely rely on “rock-star” tech whizzes, the City watchdog said on Tuesday.
Megan Butler, executive director of supervision at the Financial Conduct Authority, said the regulator is “deeply concerned” about the increasing number of technology incidents financial firms are experiencing.
The FCA today revealed the results of a new survey where around 300 firms were questioned about tech and cyber resilience.
It showed an 18% increase in cyber attacks in the year to October while technology outages more than doubled.
Speaking at a Bloomberg event, Butler said: “For most of my career in this industry, the rock stars of finance were always the alpha traders. Today, it’s the chief information officers and IT consultants who are in high demand and short supply.”
She added that financial businesses should have “all your people acting as your eyes and ears. Because even rock star CIOs can’t shoulder all the responsibility”.
Butler warned some firms seem overly confident about their ability to manage IT changes.
This year a botched upgrade at TSB left online customers locked out of their accounts.
Today ride-hailing app Uber was fined £385,000 for failing to protect customers’ personal information during a cyber attack in 2016.
