RBI working on measures to further beef up cyber security in FY19

In view of growing incidents of cyber frauds, the Reserve Bank is working towards further enhancing security mechanism as part of its agenda for this fiscal, especially when digital transactions are witnessing a significant rise.

The central bank's agenda for 2018-19 include, enhanced level of protection against cyber risks to ensure continuous protection against the changing contours of internet based security threats.

"With the emerging threat landscape, where organised cybercrime and cyber warfare are gaining prominence, the Department (of Information Technology) is working towards ensuring continuous protection against the changing contours of cybersecurity threat," as per the RBI's annual report.

The RBI's report said the 2018-19 agenda include taking effective steps to "further enhance" the levels of protection against cyber risks.

The RBI will proactively initiate the process of developing a cybersecurity culture, endeavour to make cybersecurity a responsibility and ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability of information system and resources.

"An Audit Management Application portal to handle various supervisory functions of the cybersecurity and information technology examination cell in the Reserve Bank and to fully automate monitoring of returns has been envisaged in order to facilitate consistency and efficiency of the offsite monitoring mechanism," the report said.

New private sector and foreign banks accounted for 36 per cent each of all cyber frauds reported in debit, credit and ATM cards, among others.

"In an endeavour to strengthen the cybersecurity posture of Indian banks, focused and theme-based IT examinations are planned during 2018-19. Targeted scrutiny, as and when required, would also be conducted for appropriate policy and supervisory intervention," the RBI said.

It further said that given the increasing popularity of digital payments, data protection and cybersecurity norms were strengthened, and Know Your Customer (KYC) norms were modulated further to make them more effective.

"In order to secure consistency and improve the efficiency of the offsite monitoring mechanism, an Audit Management Application portal to facilitate various supervisory functions of the Cyber Security and Information Technology Examination (CSITE) Cell and to fully automate monitoring of returns has been envisaged, which will be operationalised by March 2019," it said.

With the emerging threat landscape, where organised cybercrime and cyber warfare are gaining prominence, the RBI is working towards ensuring continuous protection against the changing contours of cybersecurity threat.