WASHINGTON—The U.S. and U.K. last week conducted a drill with leading global firms to learn how they would respond to a cyber attack in the financial sector.
The test focused on how the world's two biggest financial centers, New York and London, would cope with a cyberattack in terms of sharing information, communicating with the public and handling an incident.
"In our increasingly interconnected world, cyber criminals do not respect national borders and they target government, private industry and individual citizens alike," said U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew in a statement. "Confronting the cyber threat is a team effort that requires coordination at all levels. Today's exercise with our U.K. partners is an important step to ensure that we are doing all we can to share threat information, adopt best practices and support our collective resiliency."
NCUA is reported to have been part of the test. In addition to Treasury, U.S. participants included: White House National Security Council, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, Secret Service, the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as financial institutions and industry groups.
The test was announced earlier this year by British Prime Minister David Cameron and President Obama in light of the interconnectedness of the global financial system.