The World Economic Forum, in partnership with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has released an insightful report outlining a proposed international strategy to better protect the world's financial system against cyber threats. 

The report seeks to highlight the fragmentation between the financial, national security and diplomatic spheres, as well as the kaleidoscope of public agencies and disconnected industry-led initiatives which facilitate vulnerabilities threat actors can readily exploit. 

Most interesting to me, in light of my Fintech experience in our Tanzania and London offices, is the effect the growth of digital financial services (to provide banking facilities to the previously unbanked) will have on the cyber risk to the financial sector. Coupled with the use of blockchain to provide legal identities to the one billion people currently without such by 2030, the advances in financial and legal identity inclusion have in turn provided a "target-rich environment for malicious hackers", whilst presenting additional money laundering risks.  

Better protecting the global financial system requires international collaboration and both creative and strategic thinking around how we protect digitised financial services and legal identity blockchains from cyber threats to avoid a cyber pandemic, and regulate these risks from a GDPR perspective.