The Bank of England (BoE) is reportedly considering hiring ethical hackers as part of its plan to determine the robustness of the computer security system at banks in the event of a cyber attack.
The move is in the wake of extensive damage wreaked on organisations’ security systems from the Heartbleed bug as well as growing incidents of frauds and cyber attacks on financial firms.
These hackers are expected to target the computer systems of more than 20 major banks and other financial organizations operating in the UK as part of cyber resiliency tests, reports The Financial Times.
Dubbed as the ‘cyber threat and vulnerability management,’ the program will be supervised by Andrew Gracie, the director of the UK’s special resolution unit within the BoE.
The exercise will be similar to the Operation Waking Shark 2, a simulation of a major cyber attack on UK financial firms that was carried out in London on 12 November 2013.
According to the news portal, the new program will comprise cyber experts certified by CREST, a not-for-profit organization to carry out penetration testing.

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By GlobalDataIt is expected that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) would participate in the testing plan.