Article 27 Requirements for testers for the carrying out of TLPT

TL;DR

The Digital Operations Resilience Act from the EU outlines the requirements for using testers for Threat and Vulnerability Management/Penetration Testing (TLPT) for financial entities. This includes that the testers must be of the highest suitability and reputability, possess technical and organizational capabilities, adhere to formal codes of conduct, provide an assurance of the sound management of risks associated with TLPT, and be fully covered by professional indemnity insurance. When using internal testers, the Act requires that this use is approved by the relevant competent authority and any processing of the testing results does not create risks for the financial entity.

Financial entitiesas defined in Article 2, points (a) to (t) shall only use testers for the carrying out of TLPT(threat-led penetration testing) a framework that mimics the tactics, techniques and procedures of real-life threat actors perceived as posing a genuine cyber threat, that delivers a controlled, bespoke, intelligence-led (red team) test of the financial entity’s critical live production systems, that:
1. are of the highest suitability and reputability;
2. possess technical and organisational capabilities and demonstrate specific expertise in threat intelligencemeans information that has been aggregated, transformed, analysed, interpreted or enriched to provide the necessary context for decision-making and to enable relevant and sufficient understanding in order to mitigate the impact of an ICT-related incident or of a cyber threat, including the technical details of a cyber-attack, those responsible for the attack and their modus operandi and motivations;, penetration testing and red team testing;
3. are certified by an accreditation body in a Member State or adhere to formal codes of conduct or ethical frameworks;
4. provide an independent assurance, or an audit report, in relation to the sound management of risks associated with the carrying out of TLPT(threat-led penetration testing) a framework that mimics the tactics, techniques and procedures of real-life threat actors perceived as posing a genuine cyber threat, that delivers a controlled, bespoke, intelligence-led (red team) test of the financial entity’s critical live production systems, including the due protection of the financial entity’s confidential information and redress for the business risks of the financial entity;
5. are duly and fully covered by relevant professional indemnity insurances, including against risks of misconduct and negligence.
When using internal testers, financial entitiesas defined in Article 2, points (a) to (t) shall ensure that, in addition to the requirements in paragraph 1, the following conditions are met:
1. such use has been approved by the relevant competent authorityas defined in Article 46 or by the single public authoritymeans any government or other public administration entity, including national central banks. designated in accordance with Article 26(9) and Article 26(10);
2. the relevant competent authorityas defined in Article 46 has verified that the financial entity has sufficient dedicated resources and ensured that conflicts of interest are avoided throughout the design and execution phases of the test; and
3. the threat intelligencemeans information that has been aggregated, transformed, analysed, interpreted or enriched to provide the necessary context for decision-making and to enable relevant and sufficient understanding in order to mitigate the impact of an ICT-related incident or of a cyber threat, including the technical details of a cyber-attack, those responsible for the attack and their modus operandi and motivations; provider is external to the financial entity.
Financial entitiesas defined in Article 2, points (a) to (t) shall ensure that contracts concluded with external testers require a sound management of the TLPT(threat-led penetration testing) a framework that mimics the tactics, techniques and procedures of real-life threat actors perceived as posing a genuine cyber threat, that delivers a controlled, bespoke, intelligence-led (red team) test of the financial entity’s critical live production systems results and that any data processing thereof, including any generation, store, aggregation, draft, report, communication or destruction, do not create risks to the financial entity.

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