For decades, national defense was measured by military strength and geographic borders. Today, the battlefield has expanded into cyberspace, where financial institutions, critical infrastructure, and digital networks have become strategic targets.

As cyber threats evolve, the financial services industry is no longer simply protecting customer assets; it is helping safeguard national security.

From Article 5 to Article 3: A New Definition of Collective Defense

NATO has long recognized that a significant cyberattack could trigger Article 5, the Alliance’s collective defense commitment. But before nations can respond collectively, they must first be resilient individually.

Article 3 of the North Atlantic Treaty emphasizes each nation’s responsibility to build the resilience needed to withstand and recover from major disruptions, whether caused by cyberattacks, natural disasters, or hybrid warfare. Strong individual resilience ultimately strengthens the entire alliance.

Cyber Threats Are Becoming More Sophisticated

Nation-state cyber operations continue to grow in both scale and sophistication. Rather than simply stealing information, adversaries are increasingly positioning themselves inside critical infrastructure, giving them the ability to disrupt financial systems, communications, transportation, and military logistics during a future crisis.

Artificial intelligence is accelerating both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. While AI offers enormous opportunities for fraud detection and cybersecurity, it also introduces new operational, governance, and regulatory challenges for financial institutions.

Financial Services as Critical Infrastructure

Following the September 11 attacks, regulators placed greater emphasis on business continuity planning and operational resilience across the financial sector.

Today, that focus has expanded beyond disaster recovery to include:

  • Cybersecurity preparedness
  • Incident response
  • Third-party vendor risk management
  • Cloud resilience
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Information sharing across the industry

Organizations such as FINRA and SIFMA play leading roles in coordinating industry-wide testing, cyber exercises, and operational resilience planning to help financial markets continue functioning during major disruptions.

Resilience Is Becoming a Competitive Necessity

The move to T+1 settlement and extended trading hours has significantly reduced the time firms have to recover from operational disruptions. As a result, resilience is no longer viewed as a standalone business continuity function but as an enterprise-wide capability that integrates technology, cybersecurity, legal, operations, communications, and executive leadership.

Public-Private Collaboration Is Essential

No single financial institution or government agency can defend against today’s cyber threats alone.

Successful cyber resilience increasingly depends on collaboration among:

  • Government agencies
  • Financial institutions
  • Regulators
  • Technology providers
  • Industry associations
  • International partners

Information sharing, coordinated incident response, and joint cybersecurity exercises have become essential components of protecting both financial markets and national security.

Looking Ahead

The U.S. government’s latest cybersecurity strategy and Treasury’s Financial Sector Risk Management Plan recognize that cybersecurity is now inseparable from economic stability and national security.

Key priorities include:

  • Strengthening public-private partnerships
  • Improving cyber threat intelligence sharing
  • Managing AI-related risks
  • Increasing cloud resilience
  • Preparing for quantum computing
  • Developing coordinated responses to nation-state cyber threats

The financial services sector is increasingly viewed as part of the nation’s strategic infrastructure – not simply an industry to regulate, but one to defend.

Final Thoughts

Cybersecurity has evolved beyond an information technology issue into a strategic national security priority. As cyberattacks become more sophisticated and interconnected, financial institutions sit at the intersection of economic stability and national defense.

Building resilience through stronger governance, coordinated planning, regulatory alignment, and public-private collaboration will be critical to protecting financial markets in an era where adversaries increasingly target systems rather than borders. The future of collective defense will depend not only on military alliances but also on the resilience of the financial infrastructure that underpins modern economies.

About the Author: Alma Angotti

Alma Angotti is a recognized expert in financial crime compliance and economic sanctions with more than 30 years of experience in both regulatory enforcement and global consulting. Alma has held senior enforcement roles at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). She brings deep subject matter expertise in regulatory compliance, including Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-money Laundering (BSA/AML), sanctions, and counter-terrorist financing (CFT).

At FTI Consulting, Alma advises clients on compliance risk assessments, remediation strategies, enforcement preparedness and regulatory investigations. Her clients include global and mid-sized financial institutions; global fintech firms; digital assets and payments institutions; stablecoins and cryptocurrency platforms; broker-dealers; hedge funds; casinos; and multinational corporations.

Alma serves on the advisory boards of the Global Digital Asset and Cryptocurrency Association and the Digital Dollar Project. At FinCEN and FINRA, she designed and led the AML enforcement programs and regularly trains regulators and government officials worldwide on AML and financial crime compliance matters. Additionally, she has been approved to be an independent compliance monitor by federal and state regulatory agencies, including the SEC, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

About the Author: William Jannace

William Jannace is an Associate Professor at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy/National Defense University, where he teaches courses on economics and finance and national security. He has also served as an expert witness for The Bates Group on securities litigation matters. He is also an adjunct professor/lecturer at Fordham School of Law, Global Financial Markets Institute, and Metropolitan College, where he teaches courses covering Capital Markets/Digital Assets/Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance; State Capitalism, AML/Cybersecurity; Geopolitics/Geo-Economics, and U.S. Foreign Policy/International Relations, and Grand Strategy.

Mr. Jannace had previously worked at the American and New York Stock Exchanges, FINRA and several investment banking firms. He was also an account executive at Georgeson and D.F. King where he worked on proxy fights and tender offers. He has also served as a consultant for The World Bank and the Asian Corporate Governance Association. He has also lectured at the U.S. Army War College.

Mr. Jannace has also conducted overseas training programs for the: Russian Securities Commission/Stock Exchange; The Capital Markets Authorities in: Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya; Saudi Arabian Capital Markets Authority; Securities and Exchange Board of India; Ukrainian Securities Commission/Stock Market; Romanian Securities Commission; Jordanian Securities Commission; Capital Markets Authority of Turkey; Albanian Financial Supervisory Authority; New York Institute of Finance- Beijing/China, the Taiwan Stock Exchange and for IOSCO in Spain.

He is a member of the faculty advisory group of Board Intelligence. He is also a CIArb Fellow, a member of the Association of Certified Anti Money Laundering Specialists, International Institute for Strategic Studies, New York International Arbitration Center, and Bretton Woods Committee. He is also a supporter of the National World War II Museum, American Battle Monuments Foundation, and National D-Day Memorial. Mr. Jannace received his JD from New York Law School, and his LL.M. in Corporate, Banking, and Finance Law from Fordham Law School.

The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government. In addition, they do not reflect the official policy or position of FTI Consulting, Inc., its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals. FTI Consulting, Inc., including its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a consulting firm and is not a certified public accounting firm or a law firm. FTI Consulting is an independent global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations manage change, mitigate risk and resolve disputes: financial, legal, operational, political & regulatory, reputational and transactional. FTI Consulting professionals, located in all major business centers throughout the world, work closely with clients to anticipate, illuminate and overcome complex business challenges and opportunities. www.fticonsulting.com.

Download article