The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) jointly conducted a cyber-themed business continuity exercise to strengthen the financial sector’s resilience to cyber-attacks and operational disruptions. Codenamed Exercise Raffles, the sixth edition of the exercise was conducted over two days ending yesterday.
2 Exercise Raffles saw financial institutions respond to scenarios of cyber-attacks and operational disruptions by activating their business continuity and crisis management plans, and practicing their public communications and coordination. The scenarios included banking and payment service disruptions, trading disorders, data theft and the spreading of rumours and falsehoods on social media.
3 An important aspect of effective cyber resilience is information sharing among financial institutions and between regulators. We welcome the participation for the first time in Exercise Raffles of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).
4 Mr Tan Yeow Seng, Chief Cyber Security Officer, MAS, said, “The continually evolving cyber threat landscape and increasing interconnectedness in the financial sector calls for close collaboration within the financial ecosystem to effectively counter the threats. Exercise Raffles brings together the public and private sectors to test the response capabilities and develop comprehensive plans to improve cyber preparedness. Among the many learning points from the exercise, was the need for better coordination to manage the implications of operational disruptions in one financial institution on others within and beyond the financial sector. Overall, the experiences gained would serve to reinforce and strengthen the financial sector’s cyber resilience.”
5 Mrs Ong-Ang Ai Boon, Director of ABS, said, “Business and Operational resilience is a critical component of a financial institution. The industry regularly tests our crisis management procedures against scenarios such as cyber-attacks, physical attacks, pandemic, and environmental hazards. This is to ensure that we can respond to a crisis effectively as an institution and as an industry. We appreciate the dedication and commitment of the various working committees which made this two-day exercise possible”.
6 Exercise Raffles involved over 140 organisations, including banks, insurers, capital market services licensees, financial utility providers, finance companies, industry associations, and the Singapore Exchange. The exercise was also supported by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) and financial industry partners that included SWIFT, FIS Global, and Merimen Technologies (Singapore) Pte Ltd.
