back to article UK bankers prep for cyberwar: Will simulate ATTACK on system

UK banks, the stock market and payment providers will undergo extensive stress tests in November that are designed to test their responses to cyber-attacks. The exercise is designed to test the state of preparedness of the UK's financial system in responding to cyber attacks, which are only growing more complex over time. …

COMMENTS

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  1. Christoph

    One day?

    A one day war game - and how many weeks for the banks to get their systems working again after they crash because some trifling detail got missed?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: One day?

      Gosh how brave they all are.

      I don't give a fcuk about bankers.

    2. Crisp

      Re: war game

      Would you like to play a game?

      >Total Global Financial Meltdown_

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmmm find out the exact date of these tests and time your own attacks to happen at the same time.

    By all means carry out attacks against your own systems but don't advertise when you will do it because it gives others useful info as to when your defenses may be weakened

    1. David Pollard

      Security through obscurity ...

      ... would be better?

      Essentially every organisation capable of orchestrating a serious attack will have one or more well-placed moles inside the banking structure or be otherwise informed of the state of their defences.

  3. WhoaWhoa

    Wonder if any bookies would take bets on whether the banking system will be brought down by cyber attacks or by its dependence on the exponential invention of 'money' (numbers) that isn't backed up by actual 'stuff'...?

  4. smudge
    Alert

    Memo to self

    Make sure you have plenty ready cash on person for the month of November.

  5. Yet Another Commentard

    Waking Shark 2

    I guess there was some residual cognisance of the industry in my mind when I read that name, and I mentally inserted a spurious "n" in the first word, just before the "k" when I read it. I actually thought "what a breath of fresh air, the industry recognising exactly what it is."

    1. Peter Mount
      Happy

      Re: Waking Shark 2

      I'm so glad I'm not the only one to read it with an extra n inserted :-)

    2. Alex Trenchard

      Re: Waking Shark 2

      I read it as "Walking", but thought that they must surely mean "Jumping"...

  6. Richard 12 Silver badge

    Announced tests like this are useless

    "Ok guys, nobody answer any emails today, that way we won't get caught out"

    The day after this 'test' is what worries me, because they'll be rushing through everything to catch up, thus ripe for social engineering attacks.

  7. Crisp

    They've already been tested.

    And the easiest way to empty someones bank account is through the end user.

    Good luck patching that hole.

  8. paulc

    Expect something bad to happen that day...

    911 happened while they were doing an exercise involving exactly that scenario, 7/7 happened while they were running an exercise for the same scenario... they were running a bomb exercise in Boston at the same time as the marathon was bombed...

    1. Velv
      Trollface

      Re: Expect something bad to happen that day...

      Bit of a conspiracy theorist, are you? Somebody somewhere is ALWAYS running tests.

  9. CommanderGalaxian
    Happy

    Strange men bearing gifts.

    What about the KVMs?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmmm

    Nevermind Social Engineering, sticking my Black hat on I would hammer the system with DDoS, the extra strain of the simulation could produce some wildly unpredictable results and potentially multiply the impact.

    The key would be to find out the exact day / approx time and co-ordinate a Global DDoS - I find it idiotic in the extreme for anyone to advertise this (I'm not blaming the register but the spokes person who released this).

    It's basically a Red Rag to a Bull...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    See if we even get that far...

    ...or if the politicians in the US have already borked the global financial system with a game of Shutdown chicken...

    Got gold and tinfoil?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I've got a new firewall under my mattress.

  13. codeusirae
    Facepalm

    ATTACK OF THE CYBER-WAR STRESS TESTERS

    "UK banks, the stock market and payment providers will undergo extensive stress tests in November that are designed to test their responses to cyber-attacks

    Do they mean DDOS attacks or something else.

    DDOS attacks are enabled by masses of compromised Windows out there on the Intertubes.

    We don't usually see the terms cyber-attack or cyberwar in the serious technical press.

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