AMEDA Highlights Cyber Defense Strategies and Proactive Protection for Financial Infrastructure in Partnership with Thomas Murray

The webinar witnessed wide participation from more than 17 AMEDA members, alongside a number of major Egyptian financial companies, investment banks, and private equity firms operating in the capital markets sector. It was also presented by prominent cybersecurity experts at Thomas Murray, including Mr. Jim Micklethwaite, Managing Director and Head of Financial Markets; Mr. Shreeji Doshi, Director of Cyber Risk; and Mr. Ben Hawkins, Senior Cyber Risk Analyst. The session was moderated by Eng. Nermine Abdelfattah, Managing Director of EXLNT Communications.

This webinar serves as the launchpad for a series of specialized webinars and panel discussions to be organized by AMEDA in the upcoming period, with the participation of a select group of leading financial institutions. This reaffirms AMEDA's commitment to enhancing its members' capabilities not only in cybersecurity and building a more advanced digital system to protect financial infrastructure, but also in other areas in collaboration with top experts in Egypt and globally. This contributes to supporting the stability and integrity of capital markets in Africa and the Middle East, especially given the accelerating pace of digital transformation and the rising level of global cybersecurity challenges, threats, and other risks.

The webinar commenced with an opening address by Riham Khedr, AMEDA Secretary General, in which she highlighted the pivotal role of Thomas Murray’s risks management services and its importance to the Egyptian market and members of AMEDA. The webinar also discussed the evolving and accelerating landscape of cyber threats, from advanced phishing techniques that exploit user psychology to the complexities of ransomware attacks that can demand ransoms in the millions of dollars and may even offer "support teams" for decryption.

The webinar featured Shreeji Doshi, Director of Cyber Risk at Thomas Murray, presenting analytical insights on the transition from traditional protection methods to advanced measures based on cyber threat intelligence. This was supported by real-world examples of major attacks targeting the infrastructure of leading firms in the financial markets sector, including the Moscow Exchange, the U.S. Treasury operations of ICBC, Central Depository Services Limited (CDSL) in India, and Ion Markets in Dublin, underscoring the tangible impact of these threats on market stability.

The webinar also focused on the analysis of the financial market infrastructure risk assessment for AMEDA's member Central Securities Depositories, which revealed that the cybersecurity level in these institutions remains average and below global standards, indicating the need for greater efforts to enhance cybersecurity protection and resilience.

In this context, Ben Hawkins, Senior Cyber Risk Analyst at Thomas Murray, noted that the performance of AMEDA markets is, on average, "slightly lower" than the global average. He emphasized that the assessment does not necessarily indicate an imminent threat but rather reflects the existence of vulnerabilities that can be technically addressed, particularly in the external infrastructure. Among the specific concerns highlighted was the performance of 33 institutions within the AMEDA community, which scored in the 0 to 1,000 rating band, indicating a weaker security posture. He clarified that "the significance of these ratings means that there are issues with the external infrastructure for which fixes are available, and this assessment does not mean that the institutions will remain a target forever; it simply means that there are configuration issues at the present time."

He added that these findings underscore the importance of continuous vigilance and proactive remediation of vulnerabilities to enhance overall cybersecurity defenses within the financial market infrastructure.

He also stressed the vital need for continuous external monitoring to detect unauthorized infrastructure changes and identify vulnerabilities, especially when relying on third-party service providers, as "Orbit Security" provides the capability to maintain oversight and mitigate risks arising from such external dependencies.

For his part, Jim Micklethwaite, Managing Director and Head of Financial Markets at Thomas Murray, affirmed that Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) possess a degree of resilience against direct financial attacks due to their complex and regulated structure. However, the greater threat lies in the potential for operational disruption from ransomware attacks, particularly those originating from third-party breaches within the interconnected ecosystem of these entities. He noted that beneficial owner account data, prevalent in many AMEDA markets, constitutes an attractive target for cyber threats.

At the conclusion of the webinar, many questions and inquiries from the attendees were answered, and special thanks were extended to the AMEDA members and the Egyptian companies that made a point of attending.

AMEDA is an Organization composed of Central Securities Depositories and Clearing Houses in the Africa and Middle East region. It was established on April 27, 2005, on the sidelines of the CSD8 International Conference as a non-profit, non-governmental international organization that seeks to foster collaboration and expertise with the aim of developing and advancing depository companies in the countries of the African continent and the Middle East region. Its membership now stands at 44 members from more than 30 countries.