Central banks, clearing houses, stock exchanges, payment system providers and law enforcement agencies across Europe have joined forces on a cybercrime information sharing programme.

The core objectives of the initiative, known as Cyber Information and Intelligence Sharing Initiative (CIISI-EU), are to protect the financial system from intrusions by cybercriminals through awareness-raising exercises and by the active exchange of information on cyberattacks, threats, vulnerabilities and remedies between core financial infrastructures, Europol and Europe’s cybersecurity agency.

ECB executive board member, Fabio Panettas says cyber threats are borderless and the capabilities of the attackers are constantly evolving, threatening to disrupt the interconnected global financial systems.

“This is the first time that major financial infrastructures, Europol and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) have jointly taken steps against cyber risk,” he says. “We hope this will be an inspiring model for other jurisdictions to tackle one of the biggest threats of our time. Cybercriminals are increasingly stealing money, and therefore sharing information will help us to prevent attacks and ultimately protect people’s money.”