The financial critical infrastructure and the value of information sharing

Abstract

The financial system is quintessential to the functioning of a modern nation’s economy. Therefore this system can be definitely considered as a critical infrastructure of our society and, due to the continuously increasing penetration of the Internet world inside this infrastructure, it has to be protected from cyber attacks. This chapter introduces the main actors forming the financial system and their relationships and analyzes the system’s vulnerabilities to cyber attacks. Along this direction, the chapter investigates the financial ICT infrastructure of Norway as a case study and shows the current protection strategies adopted by financial players. The importance of information sharing at the level of a sector-specific market, such as the financial one, has been pointed out in eight added values, and examples of how poor information sharing results in sector-specific vulnerabilities are discussed. Finally some examples of information sharing methodologies are analyzed.