Cyber security remains a major thorn in the side of international regulators, says the president and chief executive officer of the Investment Industry Association of Canada (IIAC).

In a letter outlining a recent meeting by the members of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), Ian Russell states that an increasing number of sophisticated cyber-attacks are being levelled around the world.  All of these amount to a threat to confidential personal information, financial loss and massive disruption to capital markets and investor protection.

However, presentations made at the meeting indicated that most high profile cyber-attacks, such as the Equifax breach, “can be traced, not to sophisticated techniques, but to neglect implementing basic elements of protection: too open-ended access to administrative controls over the technology systems and failure to place effective ‘patches’ specifically on identified areas of the software system.”

Russell states IOSCO will be looking at current best practices around the world to help identify regulatory gaps.