Cyber Resilience Oversight for Financial Market Infrastructures in Arab Countries

Growing Imperative for Cyber Threat Resilience

In today’s technology-driven world, governments and private sector organizations must collaborate to provide a secure environment that balances security, trust, and innovation. This imperative is particularly crucial for financial market infrastructures (FMIs) in Arab countries.

What is Cyber Resilience?

Cyber resilience refers to an organization’s ability to continuously deliver intended outcomes despite adverse cyber events. This includes sensing, resisting, reacting to threats, and recovering from them in a timely fashion.

Key Components of Cyber Governance

Strong cyber governance requires a systematic and proactive approach within an organization to manage existing and emerging cyber threats. The key components of effective cyber governance include:

• Governance: Establishing clear policies and procedures for managing cyber risks
• Identification: Identifying potential vulnerabilities and threats to the organization’s systems and data
• Protection: Implementing measures to prevent or mitigate cyber attacks, such as firewalls and encryption
• Detection: Monitoring systems and networks for signs of unauthorized access or malicious activity
• Response and Recovery: Developing plans and procedures for responding to and recovering from cyber incidents

Components of a Cyber Resilience Framework

A comprehensive framework for managing cyber threats should consider the following components:

• Testing: Regularly testing systems and controls to identify vulnerabilities and ensure their effectiveness
• Situational Awareness: Maintaining awareness of the threat environment through monitoring, reporting, participation, and surveillance
• Learning: Continuously learning from cyber incidents and adapting to emerging threats
• Evolving: Updating policies, procedures, and technologies to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats

Regulatory Role in Establishing National Cyber Resilient Culture

Regulators play a crucial role in creating a national cyber resilient culture by:

• Establishing frameworks for collaboration: Encouraging organizations to share information and best practices for managing cyber risks
• Providing greater insight into the threat environment: Monitoring, reporting, participating, and surveilling threats to identify patterns and trends
• Responding on a regional, national, or international scale: Coordinating responses to large-scale cyber attacks and providing support to affected organizations

Overall, building cyber resilience is essential for FMIs in Arab countries. By implementing effective cyber governance practices and leveraging the expertise of regulators, organizations can reduce their risk exposure and stay ahead of evolving cyber threats.