A New Testimony on the CBE’s Implementation of the Highest International Cybersecurity Standards

The Computing Incident Response Team for the Financial Sector (EG-FinCIRT) of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has successfully obtained the membership of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation – Computer Emergency Response Teams (OIC-CERT), emphasizing on Egypt’s pioneering strides in this dynamic field.

This membership comes as another proof of the CBE’s successful strategy to build an integrated framework to reinforce cybersecurity in the financial and banking sectors, and in recognition of EG-FinCIRT’s endeavors during the past years. Furthermore, it demonstrates the EG-FinCIRT’s keenness to adopt and comply with international cybersecurity standards and policies, as well as ensuring their comprehensive implementation.

In this context, Dr. Sherif Hazem, CBE’s Sub-Governor for the Cybersecurity Sector emphasized, “The Central Bank of Egypt’s membership in OIC-CERT reflects its keenness to continuously build capacities, while capitalizing on the regional and international expertise in the cybersecurity arena, underlining the unprecedented developments achieved by Egypt in this field.”

Dr. Ibrahim Mostafa, Assistant Sub-Governor of the CBE and Director of EG-FinCIRT stated that “This benchmark represents another significant addition to the efforts of the EG-FinCIRT to keep up with the continuous developments in the field of cybersecurity. It also contributes to enhancing the Egyptian financial sector institutions’ ability to withstand and mitigate cyber threats, as well as raising cybersecurity awareness and empowering the cooperation in research and innovation.”

The membership of the Central Bank of Egypt in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation – Computer Emergency Response Team (OIC-CERT) comes in alignment to the CBE’s strategy, whereas it aims to promote cooperation and integration, sponsor the exchange of knowledge and expertise, develop cooperative initiatives, and enable partnerships among member states in the cybersecurity field.

In this manner, the CBE’s strategy aims to enhance the participation of the EG-FinCIRT in implementing the National Cybersecurity Strategy efficiently and effectively, in addition to support building the technical capacities of state entities to enable timely response and coordinate the mitigation of cybersecurity attacks.

It is also worth mentioning that, EG-FinCIRT has successfully obtained, in May 2023, the accreditation and membership in the Global Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), after meeting all the technical and organizational requirements, to become Egypt’s first sectoral cybersecurity incident response team internationally recognized by FIRST.