The chairman of the Treasury select committee has written to Britain’s cybersecurity chief to highlight “serious concerns” over the reliance of financial regulators on intelligence agencies to stop bank hacks.
In the wake of last month’s hacking attack on Tesco Bank, Andrew Tyrie has written to Ciaran Martin, chief executive of GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre, to ask him to consider a “single point of responsibility” for cybercrime in financial services.
He writes: “The committee has serious concerns [over] the opaque lines of accountability between the relevant authorities, particularly the regulators on the one hand and intelligence agencies on the other, and a very high degree of reliance on information from the intelligence community.”
Mr Tyrie argues that it is essential the intelligence community gives regulators the technical and practical support they need to do their job. “It is for consideration whether a single point of responsibility for cyber risk in the financial services sector is now required.”