Bank Negara has begun preparations to conduct an industry-wide crisis simulation in 2021.

The central bank said this, in addition to developing a crisis communication plan, was among various efforts that it embarked on last year to further strengthen its risk management framework and capabilities, including strengthening its organisational preparedness for dealing with crisis events.

"This involved the bank working closely with various stakeholders in the financial sector to ensure that the business continuity plans of various organisations are aligned, and allow for a coordinated response.

"We also conducted cyber-drills and refined our existing business continuity plans to ensure that we have clear recovery strategies to restore normalcy speedily after a crisis," it said in its 2019 annual report released today.

Bank Negara has enhanced its incident reporting system to allow for incident reports to be processed seamlessly, thus shortening the time taken to escalate, report and manage operational incidents.

It said the enhanced system allows for incidents to be tracked and monitored based on criticality and tolerance levels, and the generation of dashboards to aid prioritisation of response and escalation.

Cyber risks

The central bank has also launched initiatives to better prepare against cyber risks, including establishing a Security Operations Centre to facilitate surveillance and rapid response to cyber incidents.

It said the centre monitors the bank's networks and systems to detect potential cyber threats and undertake appropriate response actions.

"Recognising that cyber criminals know no borders, we initiated the Cybersecurity Resilience and Information Sharing Platform together with other ASEAN central banks," it said.

According to Bank Negara, the platform allows for central banks within the region to share cyber-related information and encourage capacity building.

"Recognising that our staff form the first line of defence against cyber threats, we rolled out a number of initiatives to improve staff awareness of cybersecurity.

"We conducted a number of cyber-awareness programmes, and issued advisories to educate staff on ways to remain vigilant against cyber incidents. We also conducted a series of phishing tests and an online assessment to ascertain the level of cybersecurity understanding of our employees," it added.

Bank Negara said it will continue to strengthen its framework for risk management, which will include embedding more deeply the risk management framework within the organisation to a level where it becomes second nature for all Bank Negara staff to act in ways consistent with its risk appetite and risk management philosophy.

"We will also work to strengthen the capacity of control functions in adding value to the business by providing insights to further integrate risk considerations in business operations and strategy," it added.

- Bernama