World Economy Must Be Ready for ‘Catastrophic Consequences’ of Cyberattacks

The international community should ensure there are measures in place allowing to cope with a major cyber attack, which could be disruptive for the global economy, US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Sarah Bloom Raskin said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Treasury deputy secretary made the statement at the Cybersecurity Docket’s Incident Response Forum in Washington, DC.

"So far, the global economy and our financial infrastructure have been spared a cyber attack with far-reaching consequences to our financial system and our nation’s economy," Raskin stated. "We need to prepare for cyber incidents that have such potential impact."

Raskin argued that the global economy has been able to avoid a major catastrophe that could freeze “our financial system, our payment system, or our basic functioning of this critical infrastructure" because of extraordinary preparation and measures that are already in place.

The deputy secretary added that the keys to effective response to a cyber attack are similar to the measures that can be implemented in response to a natural disaster.

"The keys are preparation, coordination, and practice," Raskin explained.

US agencies as well as private organizations have suffered numerous data breaches in the past ten years. Targets successfully penetrated include the US Internal Revenue Service, a nuclear research laboratory and the US office of Personnel Management, where personal data of 21 million former and current US government employees was compromised.