come cheaply but it is the price that people know that they have to pay for the protection of their physical properties. 3. in the cyber world, just like the real world, there are plenty of risks and dangers. financial crimes will occur whenever there is money to be made and for sure criminals and hackers alike will use their best endeavours to penetrate the defence of the cyber world to rob or steal. the strength of the cyber world also lies its main weakness. hackers can choose to attack customers and financial firms any time and anywhere because the virtual world is highly interconnected. cyber attacks can take many different forms. a frequently used method is to make phishing attempts to trick customers into divulging their account information and passwords, or to plant malwares into customers ’ computers and mobile phones to steal their access credentials. then the hackers transfer moneys from the victims ’ accounts. sometimes the hackers would do something unusual, such as the recent example in bis central bankers ’ speeches hong kong in which some customers ’ bank accounts had been used by hackers to conduct unauthorized stock trading without stealing money from the victims ’ accounts. at the bank level, the usual form of attacks would be distributed denial of services ( ddos ), whether they are motivated by blackmail, revenge or activism of some sort. there is a worrying trend that this form of attacks is rising very fast in recent years. cybersecurity fortification initiative 4. rather than harbouring the hope that you are lucky enough not to be targeted, it is more prudent and productive to take the necessary pre - emptive steps to protect yourself or your customers from cyber attacks. cybersecurity is the very foundation of modern banking and without it there is no point for us to boast hong kong as a world class international financial centre. while banks in hong kong have so far had very few incidents of serious cyber attacks, there is no place for complacency if we wish to maintain hong kong ’ s competitive edge as the preferred financial hub in asia. in this connection, the hkma has earlier this year set up a new fintech facilitation office, which has taken cybersecurity as its top priority mission. having worked very closely with the banking industry and other stakeholders, i am very pleased to announce today that the hkma has decided to launch for the banking system a “ cybersecurity fortification initiative ”, which is known as “ cfi ” in

the chinese language. the platform would also ensure that users would feel comfortable with providing intelligence on cyber attacks without compromising proprietary information. needless to say, access to the platform will be through secure channels with robust encryption and on a need - to - know basis. way forward 10. ladies and gentlemen, having announced the launch of the cfi, the hkma will move full steam ahead in collaboration with our partners and the stakeholders to roll out the programmes i just mentioned with the following timeline : bis central bankers ’ speeches 11. ( a ) the hkma will issue a formal circular to all banks next week, stating clearly that it is a supervisory requirement for banks to implement the cfi ; ( b ) we will at the same time conduct a three - month consultation with the banking industry on our detailed proposals on the risk - based cyber resilience assessment framework ; ( c ) we will work with the hkib and astri to roll out the first training courses for cybersecurity practitioners by the end of this year ; and ( d ) we will work with the hkab and astri to set up the cyber intelligence sharing platform by the end of this year. i understand that the timeline for rolling out the cfi programmes is very tight. however, if we wish to raise the cybersecurity resilience of our banking system to a level commensurate with hong kong ’ s position as the leading international financial centre in asia, we cannot afford to go slow or lose any time. in a spirit of cooperation to achieve this common goal, the hkma, the banking industry and our partners will work closely together to implement this ambitious but necessary cfi according to plan. in closing, i would like to emphasise that in the physical world, there are very few, if any, of the defences of the strongest forts that ever existed can prove to be totally impenetrable by attackers. that is why i believe that, in the cyber world, by the same token the fortification initiative against cyber attacks that we are pursuing is not going to be a one - off exercise. it will be an ongoing battle or a fact of life that any successful financial centre must contend with and win if we wish to stay ahead of the game. thank you! bis central bankers ’ speeches