Cyber attack could be next shock to UK banks, warns KPMG

Cyber attack or disruption could cause the next systemic shock to the UK banking industry rather than a liquidity crunch, according to the latest report from business consultancy firm KPMG.

While the banking industry has addressed many of the problems that had led to the financial crisis in 2008, the report said cyber attacks or massive systems outages represented new threats.

The report noted that banks had suffered a 12% increase in online account fraud in the past year and that six major US banking institutions had suffered website outages in 2012.

The report said that the motivation for cyber attacks is shifting from financial crime to political and ideological attacks, with the number of state-sponsored hacking and hacktivist attacks increasing.

SOURCE: computerweekly.com