GRA · Financial Cyber and Operational Resilience

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Network science and contagion for financial cyber and operational resilience

Network science maps firms, providers and services as connected nodes. On this platform it shows how a failure at a shared provider or infrastructure spreads across firms, and which dependencies concentrate risk in the financial sector.

01Register

Network science and contagion for financial cyber and operational resilience on the record.

Method recordSTEM method
  1. MethodNetwork science and contagion
  2. Applied inFinancial Cyber and Operational Resilience
  3. Canonical pageSTEM Commons
02Application

What network science and contagion does here.

Network science and contagion study how the structure of connections among entities shapes the spread of failures, information and disease. It provides tools to analyse interdependent infrastructure, supply chains and financial systems. In cyber and digital resilience, financial stability and critical infrastructure, network science identifies critical nodes and pathways through which shocks propagate across sectors. It informs targeted protection and diversification to limit cascades. The canonical description is on the STEM Commons.

Sector dependency maps

Registers of third-party arrangements are combined to show which providers support many firms' important services at the same time.

Outage propagation

Simulations trace how an outage at a provider or infrastructure would affect services across dependent firms and their customers.

Software component networks

Dependency graphs of software components show where a single library flaw would reach many critical applications.

03Spatial finance

Settlement dependencies, and what fails with a node.

How a failure at one financial centre can spread through settlement links. Design links, not real dependencies.

Sixteen financial centres, and how a failure at one spreads through settlement links.Design links, not the real dependencies of any infrastructure.
04Data

What the method consumes.

Datasets and records used by network science and contagion on this platform, with the role each plays and the label its values carry. Sources are listed in the source register.

DataRoleLabel
Third-party registersProvider linksREPORTED
Software bills of materialsComponent linksDECLARED
Incident reportsObserved propagationREPORTED
05Monitor

Network analysis.

The screen a team would use to follow this method: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.

Network analysis

Operational resilience · Network science and contagion · Run R-3490

Single point of failureGRA · Financial Cyber and Operational Resilience

Dependency graph

nodes: assets · edges: dependencies

Most central nodes

N30.247Critical
N40.3311Normal
N50.316Normal
N60.214Normal

Cascade size under removal

Network analysis: the screen's structure, terms and states for Operational resilience.Example names and illustrative values; a design, not a record or a live system.
06Validation

How results are checked.

Models are checked by reproducing observed cascades and outbreaks. Robustness of results to missing or uncertain links is tested.

CheckHow it is done
Coverage statedThe share of the sector represented in the data is stated
Validation against eventsSimulations are compared with observed outages
StabilityKey nodes are checked across periods

Network data are often incomplete or confidential. Static network models may miss adaptive behaviour during cascades.

07Stress test

How a shock to assets becomes a system loss.

The equity the system loses after interbank contagion, against the initial hit, as leverage, interconnection and recovery rates change, the core of a macroprudential stress test. Teaching model with stated illustrative values, not a prediction. The map on this page shows The Low Countries; the model itself is not tied to a place.

Controls

Fall in external assets
2.0%
Leverage (assets over equity)
10 times
Interbank share of assets
10%
Recovery on interbank claims
40%
Banks in the system
20
Core banks
20% of banks

Readouts

Equity lost to the initial shock
18.0%
Equity lost after contagion
45.0%
Added by contagion (DebtRank)
27.0 points
Banks in default
0
Numbers, methods and sources
RoundSystem equity lost (%)Banks in default
018.000
128.800
235.280
339.170
441.500
542.900
643.740
744.240
844.550
944.730
1044.840
1144.900
1244.940
1344.960
1444.980
1544.990
1644.990
1745.000
1845.000
1945.000
2045.000
2145.000
2245.000
2345.000
2445.000
2545.000
2645.000
2745.000
2845.000
2945.000
3045.000

Methods

  1. DebtRank Battiston and others (2012), Scientific Reports 2:541
  2. Differential DebtRank Bardoscia and others (2015), PLOS ONE 10
  3. Contagion in financial networks Gai and Kapadia (2010), Proc. R. Soc. A 466
  4. Clearing in financial networks Eisenberg and Noe (2001), Management Science 47
  5. Uncertainty fan (parameter Monte Carlo) Spiegelhalter, Pearson and Short (2011), Visualising uncertainty about the future, Science 333
  6. One-at-a-time sensitivity (tornado) Saltelli and others (2008), Global Sensitivity Analysis: The Primer, Wiley

Data

No observed data enters this model: it runs on the teaching values set by the controls, to be replaced with a programme's own evidence.

How a shock to assets becomes a system loss. Illustrative teaching model: it runs on the values set by the controls, not on measured data. Methods: DebtRank (Battiston and others (2012), Scientific Reports 2:541); Differential DebtRank (Bardoscia and others (2015), PLOS ONE 10); Contagion in financial networks (Gai and Kapadia (2010), Proc. R. Soc. A 466).
09Twin and cascade simulator

Trace a shock to the balance sheet.

Assembled from the Nexus Standards area profile Cyber resilience and digital operational resilience: the shocks it names, the systems and sectors that carry the loss, the controls that dampen it and the data that observe it. Pick an initiating shock and step through the cascade to see which exposures it reaches and where losses could concentrate. The Map view places the run on an example geography with open data. Every weight is a stated assumption. An exercise, not a forecast, a valuation, a rating or investment advice. To model a place of your own choosing, open the full System Builder.

Hazards

  • Dam failure
  • River flood (set off downstream)
  • Flash flood (set off downstream)
  • Mass displacement (set off downstream)
  • Widespread power outage (set off downstream)
  • Water supply shortfall (set off downstream)

Controls

  • NS-0 Constitution and principles
  • NS-9 Contextual UNIs (deployments, instances, programme instances)
  • NS-10 Policies and clauses (machine-readable obligations: definition, binding, evaluation and enforcement)
  • NS-11 Verification and monitoring (evidence, attestations, zero-trust conformance observation)
  • NS-12 Software, model and AI/ML artefacts (supply chain, model cards, dataset sheets)
  • NRS-X6 Cyber and digital security risk
  • NRS-H54 Hazard family: Signal and platform disruption (NHS-1 cyber.platform)
  • NRS-P10 Third-party, outsourcing and concentration risk
  • NRS-H107 Hazard family: Digital infrastructure concentration and monoculture (NHS-1 tech.digital-concentration)
  • NRS-K31 Domain pack profile: Cyber national resilience (DOMAIN-031)
  • NRS-S7 System profile: NXS-EOP (Earth observation and digital twins)

Observation

  • Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue (listed for reference)
  • National Vulnerability Database (CVE enrichment API) (listed for reference)
  • OSV open source vulnerability database (listed for reference)
  • Proportion of population covered by a mobile network, by technology

Example geography

  • North America: 243 hexagonal cells
  • Night lights tonight, outages (VIIRS Day/Night Band), NASA GIBS
  • Surface water through cloud, 30 m (OPERA DSWx-S1 radar), NASA GIBS
  • Rain rate, last half hour (IMERG), NASA GIBS
  • Surface soil moisture (SMAP), NASA GIBS
10Stewardship

Who maintains the method.

Systems Science and Modelling stewards network science and contagion for the Consortium and reviews how it is applied across platforms.

11Exposure, loss and capital

What it means for exposure, loss and capital.

The exposure, loss, scenario and capital views a risk officer, supervisor or ministry of finance would ask for, with the frameworks they report against. Structures follow supervisory and actuarial practice. Values are illustrative: never prices, ratings or advice.

Transmission channels

How a shock in network science and contagion for financial cyber and operational resilience reaches credit, market, underwriting, liquidity and operational risk, and feeds back.

Channel structure after the Basel Committee's work on climate-related risk drivers and transmission channels; links shown are typical paths, not estimated exposures.
NGFS climate scenarios · Network for Greening the Financial SystemIFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures · ISSBTCFD recommendations · Financial Stability Board TCFDPrinciples for the effective management of climate-related financial risks · Basel Committee on Banking Supervision
13Questions

Questions and answers.

What are the limits of network science and contagion in this field?
Network data are often incomplete or confidential. Static network models may miss adaptive behaviour during cascades.
How are results checked?
Models are checked by reproducing observed cascades and outbreaks. Robustness of results to missing or uncertain links is tested.
Are the values on this page real?
The data names, roles and checks are real descriptions of practice. The canvas shows a design of the method's use, not a run; no result is reported here.
Where else is this method applied?
The canonical method page lists every platform that applies it.
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Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

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