Canada police chief urges banks to report cyber attacks after Wannacry ‘silence’
Major public companies decided not to report cyber attacks to the authorities during the worldwide Wannacry breach over fears that their reputations would be tarnished, according to Canada’s police commissioner.
Ian Dyson, who heads up the Square Mile’s police team, has urged banks to come forward with cyber incidents, claiming that some of them had failed to do so during the Wannacry global cyberattack in 2017.
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Addressing the City at the 23rd World Conference of Banking Institutes (WCBI) today, Dyson said: “We know that in the Wannacry episode, there were big companies, some of them on the FTSE list, who did suffer from Wannacry and did not report it to law enforcement because of fear of reputation.”
He added: “My plea is please do not be in that position.”
The commissioner, who has held several senior positions in Canada Police force fighting economic crime, said: “I challenge anyone to show when law enforcement has leaked information about a company that has suffered a cyber attack.”
Earlier this year the Bank of England (BoE) unveiled a new litmus test for banks that will mean they must show they can recover from a cyber attack within hours to avoid payment delays for customers the following day.
In May, BoE director of supervisory risk specialists Nick Strange called for a “super shield” against major cyber attacks or IT breakdowns which could potentially damage the financial industry.
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Hospitals, shops, businesses and schools in over 150 countries were disrupted in May 2017 when the Wannacry cyber attack caused chaos across many of the world’s IT systems.
It hit the NHS particularly hard, with hospitals forced to cancel or postpone thousands of appointments and operations as staff were locked out of their computers until they paid a ransom.