CCPs face pressure to deal with cyber security threats

Like other financial institutions, central counterparties face a barrage of ever-changing cyber security threats. But given their growing systemic importance, banks and global regulators are pressing them to do more to address the risk

One Monday morning in early 2014, one of the world's central counterparties (CCPs) fell victim to a mysterious group of cyber criminals. All of a sudden, the CCP's employees received a flurry of emails asking them to reveal passwords and confidential information about clearing members' positions and margin payments. In order to obtain quick responses from staff, the hackers carefully faked senior managers' email addresses.

The attack ran over several days and dozens of employees from different