Financial system must gear up to tackle cyber threats: Khan

As India embraces a digital revolution, its financial system needs to further strengthen its technology to effectively deal with cyber security threats, Reserve Bank Deputy Governor H R Khan said today.
"Financial system is one of the easy targets for cyber terrorism. According to a recent study, we are the most vulnerable country in terms of cyber security.
"At this point, when we are at the cusp of digital revolution, we have to focus on cyber security," he said at an Indian Banks' Association event here.
He said though it is not possible to eliminate the cyber threats fully, one has to be prepared to deal with them. "I am not scaring people but people should be prepared for that."

Khan said banks should give due importance to security dimension of technological absorption.
He said there is a myth that the regulator is standing in the way of innovation and development. "We continue to work for innovations at the same time we focus on integrity...Both have to be balanced."

Talking about urban cooperative and regional rural banks, he said there is a need for them to adopt technology as they are going to face tremendous challenge from small finance and payments banks.
He said RBI is trying to ensure that urban cooperative banks are on core banking system (CBS) and is looking to provide some subvention for the process from its side.

The Deputy Governor said financial inclusion has given banks and other financial players opportunities in terms of technological innovations.
Under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, around 20 crore accounts have been opened and 12 to 15 crore cards issued.
"One of the areas of leveraging this opportunity is intra-operability of micro ATMs," Khan added.