Bank of Thailand Calls In Every Bank's CIO and Moves Cyber Attack Reporting to Daily

The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has called in the chief information officers of every financial institution, together with the banking sector's response team TB-CERT and the Thai Bankers' Association, after IT failures and cyberattacks at banks abroad. Deputy Governor Suwannee Jessadasak said the central bank has so far found no impact on the services of financial institutions in Thailand.

What the banks were told

Drills come first. Each bank will run contingency drills for key payment systems under its business continuity plan, according to the central bank's statement as Thansettakij carries it.

Reporting changes too. Banks now report attacks to the central bank daily, Governor Vitai Ratanakorn said after meeting their IT and security heads that morning.

Attacks on Thai institutions have risen over the past one to two weeks, some of them linked to the attacks abroad, in the governor's account, and banks have so far held them off. He told the public there's no need to panic, withdraw cash or stockpile food.

No bank was named, and no count or type of attack was given. The meeting came a day after Thailand's National Security Council ordered closer monitoring of critical infrastructure across the economy, from food and health to energy and transport.

Which incidents abroad

The BoT didn't say which foreign incidents prompted the meeting. InfoQuest's background to the story mentions Europe and Asian countries including Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan.

Malaysia's National Security Council said on 7 November that several financial institutions had seen incidents and disruptions. It named none. On 6 November the website of Malaysia's Bank Rakyat was defaced.

In Indonesia, threat-map screenshots spread on social media until OJK, the financial regulator, said its banking system was still safe.