Note from the CEO: This is actually so great to see. Pardon our jaded perspective, but we don't typically see government entities getting out ahead of potential trouble, but it appears the Commodities Futures Trading Commission is doing exactly that. By requiring exchanges, clearing firms, and other market participants to test their systems 4x per year for cyber-vulnerabilities, it seems a great step and in fact was voted on unanimously. Of course, this doesn't eliminate hackers from infiltrating their systems for nefarious reasons, but still it's a great step, in our opinion. Better safe than sorry.
"US exchanges, clearing houses, trade repositories and dealing platforms will have to test their systems for cyber-vulnerabilities at least once a quarter under new rules approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The unanimous vote in favour of the enhanced provisions was welcomed by CFTC chair Timothy Massad, who described the risk of cyberattacks as 'the single greatest threat to the stability and integrity of our markets today'.
Under the rules, firms must probe their systems for loopholes at least once a quarter and conduct annual breach recovery tests. External auditors must also be contracted for annual penetration testing to attempt to identify weaknesses in perimiter defences that cyber attackers could overcome."
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