Financial Stability Board Issues Consultation on Developing a Cyber Lexicon

As part of its work on the protection of financial stability against the malicious use of information and communication technologies, the Financial Stability Board has published a draft cyber lexicon for consultation.

In March 2017, the FSB was asked by the G20 Finance Ministers to review and produce a stock-take report on the existing regulation, supervisory practices and guidance on cyber security in the financial sectors of G20 jurisdictions. The G20 welcomed the FSB's stock-take report in October 2017 and asked the FSB to continue its work and to develop a common lexicon of cyber terms.

The FSB stresses that the lexicon is not intended for use in the legal interpretation of any international arrangement or agreement or any private contract. The use of the cyber lexicon will not be mandatory. Its purpose is to support the work of the FSB, standard-setting bodies, national authorities and private sector participants to address, and develop guidance on, cyber security and cyber resilience in the financial sector. In particular, the aim of the cyber lexicon is to create a cross-sector common understanding of relevant cyber security and cyber resilience terminology and to facilitate assessment and monitoring of financial stability risks in cyber risk scenarios.

The FSB established a Working Group of experts to develop the lexicon, chaired by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and including representatives from member jurisdictions and from each of the standard-setting bodies. In selecting terms to be included in the lexicon, the Working Group applied criteria to reflect the scope and objective of the lexicon and to exclude technical ICT terms and general business and regulatory terms. Following the selection of terms, further criteria were used to develop the relevant definition. The FSB is now seeking feedback on the definitions it has developed, whether the criteria used for selection and definition of terms are appropriate, whether terms should be added, deleted or modified and on how the lexicon might be maintained and updated going forward.

Comments on the draft lexicon are invited by August 20, 2018. The FSB will publish all submissions on its website unless respondents expressly request otherwise.

The FSB intends to deliver the completed lexicon to G20 leaders at their summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 - December 1, 2018.

View the consultation paper.

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