During a conference on cybercrime and finance on 16 July, Tim Hermans, the director of the National Bank of Belgium explained that “cyber crime has become one of the biggest risks to the financial sector”.
Organised jointly by the National Bank of Austria and the Austrian National Chancellery, this event particularly got to grips with the regulatory challenges created by new technologies and the threats to the system. On this occasion, the Austrian Secretary of State, Karoline Edtstadler, repeated his country's goal to finalise cyber security legislation and facilitate the adoption of cyber resilience measures in a variety of sectors.
Questioned about the details, during a press conference, about cyber security legislation and whether certification should be obligatory or voluntary, the Presidency emphasised that the negotiations were ongoing and it was not possible to say.
It should be recalled that the European Parliament introduced the idea of compulsory certification in certain specific cases, particularly for certain services offered by at risk infrastructure (see EUROPE 12059).
Ewald Nowotny, the governor of the Austrian National Bank, explained that compulsory certification was not needed for the banking sector (which is what Parliament wants to impose for critical infrastructure). Mr Hermans appeared to agree with this opinion before highlighting the sectoral initiatives already applied by the industry. All the different speakers highlighted the importance of prevention and good information sharing. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)