TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, August 25. The Central
Bank of Uzbekistan plans to introduce a new system for assessing
the cybersecurity maturity and cyber risks of financial
institutions next year, Trend’s special correspondent reports from
Tashkent.
Mirzabek Bobojanov, Head of Unit at CERT-CBU, the Cybersecurity
Center of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, made the announcement
while speaking at the Silk Road Finance & Technology Forum.
According to Bobojanov, the new system will differ from existing
regulatory requirements and allow the Central Bank to assess
financial institutions based on their individual levels of cyber
risk and maturity. “We have developed a new cybersecurity
framework. We will launch and implement it next year. It will be
totally different from the regulatory requirements,” Bobojanov
said.
He noted that the new framework will include four levels of
cybersecurity maturity. “A significant bank should follow the
hardest rules. A bank that doesn’t have so many clients and is not
so digitalized will follow the lowest requirements that we will
have,” he explained.
According to Bobojanov, the approach will allow the regulator to
focus its resources on institutions facing higher cybersecurity and
fraud risks. “We cannot cover all institutions. We cannot go and
audit everyone. That’s why our vision will be more focused on the
risk level and maturity level,” he said.
He added that the regulator will first collect relevant
information from financial institutions, including documents and
details of their cybersecurity systems and processes.
"Organizations with lower assessment scores will then become a
priority for Central Bank audits," Bobojanov said.
