FIA plans second quarter report into ION cyber-attack - Lukken

The head of the FIA has said the trade body will publish before the end of June a report into the January cyber-attack on ION Markets as he announced a taskforce to probe the derivatives industry's approach to cyber-security.

The new team will set guidelines to improve resilience in cleared markets, the trade body's chief executive said in prepared remarks for the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) market risk advisory committee on Wednesday.

“Today FIA is announcing the formation of a global Cyber Risk Taskforce to look at the ION event and to develop recommendations for improvements to our markets,” Walt Lukken said. “This taskforce will focus on several areas including existing cyber protections and protocols, the effectiveness of the industry’s initial response, best practices around reconnection, and safeguards around third-party service providers. We aim to release an initial report by the second quarter of the year.”

The CFTC last month said it expects to clear by the middle of March the backlog of trade reports that built up in the aftermath of the January 31 ION cyber-attack.

The FIA held an initial call with 150 industry members on the day of the attack, the first in a series of calls that grew to 700 participants by the end of that week, Lukken said.

Global Investor understands the clients affected by the ION cyber-attack are now back online with a normal service.

“Business continuity testing is crucial to helping derivatives firms prepare for unplanned market disruptions of any kind,” Lukken said. ”Since 2004, FIA has hosted an annual disaster recovery exercise for market participants from around the globe including exchanges, regulators, clearing houses, clearing firms, service providers, executing brokers and software vendors. With a new lens toward the events that occurred at ION, FIA is reviewing this annual exercise to determine whether it needs to be modified.

“FIA also recommends simulated exercises aimed at improving responses to a range of cyber-threat scenarios within the US financial sector, including members of both the public and private sectors.”

CFTC chair Rostin Behnam last month said the regulator will propose for consultation new regulations covering the operational resilience of swap dealers and futures brokers using third party service providers after the ION event.

The FIA and CFTC updates will complement existing rules brought in by self-regulatory body the National Futures Association in September 2021.