Stock market to upgrade systems after data breach

Following reports of a data breach, Egypt’s stock exchange announced plans to upgrade its security procedures, while downplaying the significance of the incident.

The announcement followed reports in local media Saturday that a brokerage company had breached the exchange’s systems and accessed confidential data. “Disaster,” read a headline in Dostour newspaper. 

The EGX confirmed that a brokerage firm did gain access to a competing firm’s end-of-day trading reports, but denied that the exchange itself was hacked.

Instead, the EGX said a review of security mechanisms revealed that one brokerage accessed the stock market's system using a competitor’s login information.

The stock market gives brokerage companies temporary names and passwords in a sealed envelope, with instructions to change them immediately, according to the EGX statement.

EGX management say they informed market regulator EFSA as soon as the breach was detected. EFSA inspected the company and shut down the offending accounts, and opened an investigation into the case.

The exchange asserts that its trading systems “have the highest degree of protection, confidentiality and capacity,” noting that it uses Virtual Private Database technology to strictly control what data is available to each individual user and business unit.

However, in light of the breach reported Saturday, the EGX plans to make several changes to its security systems. The password for each brokerage will be linked to that firm’s IP address as a “precautionary measure.” When a planned upgrade to trading systems is put in place, the EGX will shift to a one-time password system, a more secure protocol that could prevent the type of breach reported Saturday.