Trade Groups Want To Standardize Cybersecurity Data Sharing

A new plan, titled “Sheltered Harbor,” was unveiled by the primary trade groups that represent the financial services sector to help standardize data storage for retail accounts and strengthen cybersecurity defenses.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the plan is designed to help better protect the accounts of depositors and investors from cyberattacks. The standard is expected to go into effect in 2017 and will enable financial institutions to recover client information from another location if the primary institution experiences a malicious attack.

“The affected institution will be able to access the data themselves, and they can transfer the data to someone who can help them restore it,” Steve Silberstein, chief executive of the Sheltered Harbor standards board, told WSJ.

The plan is a part of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), which facilitates communication about cybersecurity across the industry.

Members of FS-ISAC began participating in the “Hamilton Series” exercises to help develop rapid response capabilities to debilitating cyberattacks industrywide.

“Through those exercises, we identified where there might be areas to enhance our resiliency and our recovery,” Kenneth Bentsen, chief executive of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, explained. “The industry thought it was important to do this as part of business continuity planning, and that it needed to be an industry-led initiative.”

Silberstein confirmed that the data storage standards are in line with federal regulatory guidelines for cybersecurity.