Behind the media headlines this week around the G7 discussions and actions to scale down the crisis in the Middle east the organisation undertook an exercise that looked to explore one of their biggest fears outside of a global conflict.

The G7 Cyber Expert Group has revealed it completed a cross-border coordination exercise with a systemic cyber- attack at its heart.

They were quick to explain G7 authorities routinely exercise to ensure they can effectively coordinate and communicate their response in the event of a widespread cyber incident affecting the financial system.

The primary objective of this week’s exercise was to strengthen the ability of G7 financial authorities in effectively communicating and coordinating their respective responses to facilitate crisis management in the event of a significant cross-border cyber incident affecting the financial sector. The exercise built on previous simulations and workshops, which focused on cyber incident response, recovery management, and crisis communication.

To optimise coordination among G7 financial authorities, the exercise assumed a large-scale cyber-attack on financial market infrastructures and entities in all G7 jurisdictions. The exercise brought together 23 financial authorities, including ministries of finance, central banks, bank supervisors, and market authorities, as well as private industry participants.

“By conducting such exercises, the G7 Cyber Expert Group aims to bolster the financial sector’s resilience and minimise disruptions across all G7 jurisdictions,” a spokesperson added. “This exercise allows the G7 financial authorities to continue to integrate the multiple lines of effort necessary to respond effectively to an incident.

“In an ever-changing and interconnected world, cross-border coordination, incident response preparedness, and information exchanges remain G7 priorities. The G7 Cyber Expert Group continuously collaborates on cybersecurity and stands ready to respond to cyber threats posed to the financial system.”

While happy to talk about the process and the problem, what was lacking was any information on the outcome.

With a broad financial services sector participation the hope has to be that the G7 authorities came thought the test with flying colours. However, only those who took part know just how robust the systems were to the test.

Whilst it is understandable that they do not want to wash their dirty cyber laundry in public, a positive statement as to how well the system coped would go someway to soothing the concerns of the wider business community that their banks and insurers are secure if a major cyber incident occurred.

If we suddenly find regulators issuing new stress test scenarios or Dear CEO letters are issued, we may get some idea that lessons have been learned.