UK banks on high alert as Russian cyber threat rises

Britain’s biggest banks have bolstered their defences against a Russian cyber attack. 

The plan will mean close co-operation between lenders, so that if hackers took down one bank’s website, its customers would still be able to access their online accounts via another. It involves the use of open banking technology, which allows banks to share certain agreed details of their customers. 

A top technology source at one high street bank told The Mail on Sunday that there was a fear Russia will retaliate against Western sanctions by cyber attacks on banks or infrastructure. 

There has been no evidence of a massive state-sponsored attack yet, the source said. ‘But more recently there has been more rhetoric coming out of Russia about nuclear war and cyber attacks,’ the source added. ‘We’re very conscious of that. It hasn’t yet materialised. Doesn’t mean it won’t.’ 

Another cyber security expert said that when the war first broke out, lenders were holding daily calls with the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, to monitor for evidence of malicious online attempts to weaken the banking industry. 

Those meetings have become less frequent. The source added that there is a high level of information-sharing between UK lenders and their international competitors. 

‘Russia has very strong cyber attack capabilities so we’re tracking what they’re doing. We’re not seeing anything outside of Ukraine at the moment,’ the specialist added. ‘But by tracking what the Russians are doing to the Ukrainians gives us insight on what we can expect.’ 

Earlier this year, Ukraine accused Russia of a cyber attack on two of its banks. Analysts at S&P Global said that although major assaults on European banks have so far not happened, there has been a rise in ‘smaller and more pernicious hacks’. These may or may not be linked to the Kremlin. 

Earlier this month, the US Treasury said it had repelled cyber attacks by pro-Russian hackers.