RBI sets up panel to review cyber threats

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday announced the setting up of an Inter-disciplinary Standing Committee on Cyber Security. The 11 member committee which will be chaired by RBI ED Meena Hemchandra has been entrusted to review the threats emerging form use of technology, study adoption of new technology standards and suggest appropriate policy interventions to strengthen cyber security and resilience.

The RBI had on February 8 proposed to step up this inter-disciplinary committee. Last year in June the the Reserve Bank had issued guidelines to banks mandating them certain cyber security preparedness rules for addressing risks emerging form new technology.

"While banks have taken several steps to strengthen their defences, the diverse and ingenious nature of cyber-attacks necessitates an ongoing review of the cyber security landscape and emerging threats," the Reserve Bank said in a notification.


Nearly a dozen Indian banks have fallen prey to cyber-attacks in the last 8-9 months and the RBI has been critical of banks preparedness on the same.

In a recent speech the RBI deputy governor SS Mundra had red flagged the issue and said that banks were hardly doing much to protect their customers. "We have observed that in many cases, the banks react to cyber incidents in a knee jerk and an ad hoc manner which at times has a potential to jeopardise future investigations," Mundra had said. "The world has learnt that in dealing with cyber-attacks, awareness and sharing of information plays an important role. We often observe that this key premise is ignored."