From advanced hacks to clever phishing attempts: digital attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated. DNB protects the financial system through rigorous supervision, smart testing, and strong cybersecurity.
Protecting ourselves against cybercrime
We’ve all encountered them: fraudulent messages luring you to make payments or share data, either directly (phishing) or on a fake website (spoofing). Sometimes grammar en spelling mistakes cause your internal alarm bells to ring. Today, however, AI text generators write perfect emails and text messages and use online information to set a very convincing story. Before you know it, your savings account may be drained. Even worse is when a bank's payment systems are hacked. Then the savings of a very large group of people could vanish all at once. DNB uses ethical hacking to help the financial sector guard against such attacks.
Cyberthreats are a priority in DNB’s work
Criminals are keen to target financial institutions, which is why cyberthreats are a priority in DNB's supervision. In the event of a bank hack, not only can criminals steal large sums of money, but they can also use ransomware to block access to accounts. The societal damage and disruption caused by such a hack are enormous. And then there’s the confidential and highly sensitive information held by pension funds and insurers. Insurance companies, for example, hold a lot of unique personal data, such as medical data or the value of household contents. If this data is stolen, it can have a potentially huge impact on individual citizens and it can severely damage trust in the financial sector.
‘Cyber threats are often invisible to the general public: what you read in the newspaper is often just the tip of the iceberg.’
Christel’s story
DNB Dossier: Cyber
DNB Dossier: Cyber is a special series within the DNB Talks podcast. Across four consecutive episodes, a fictional case – inspired by real events – is used to illustrate the work of DNB’s cybersecurity specialists.
DNB Talks
In deze podcast-serie bespreken we actuele financieel-economische vraagstukken met verschillende specialisten van DNB. Er komen geregeld nieuwe afleveringen bij.
Innovative testing programmes like TIBER
Our Data & IT division employs some two hundred IT specialists. Part of them work in the Cyber Defense Centre that guards DNB's ICT infrastructure. Other departments focus on the cybersecurity of the of financial institutions. These include Cyber Resilience & Crisis Management, which is part of the Payments, Cash and Market Infrastructures division within the Central Bank. There is also an increasing focus on protection against sophisticated phishing and other cybercrime, in part through the in-house development of innovative testing tools.
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