US Markets

CME CEO on cybersecurity: Companies must 'allocate the resources to defend our systems'

Key Points
  • The financial system is a target terrorists would like to disrupt with a cyberattack, CME Group Chairman and CEO Terry Duffy told CNBC.
  • He said everyone should allocate resources to defend their systems like governments allocate funds to NATO.
CME Group CEO Terry Duffy: We must allocate resources to defend our systems
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CME Group CEO Terry Duffy: We must allocate resources to defend our systems

The financial system is a target terrorists would like to disrupt with a cyberattack, so companies need to do the best they can to protect themselves, CME Group Chairman and CEO Terry Duffy told CNBC on Tuesday.

In fact, cybersecurity is one of his big concerns and CME spends a "tremendous amount of revenue" on it, he said.

"You can spend until you're blue in the face and still not protect everything. So you have to do the best job you possibly can," Duffy said in an interview with "Closing Bell."

His comments followed those of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who said on Tuesday that cybersecurity is a "big focus" for him.

"I'm concerned about the global financial system and keeping it protected," Mnuchin said at the Delivering Alpha conference, presented by CNBC and Institutional Investor.

Duffy said businesses need to remain vigilant and dedicate resources to protect themselves and their customers.

"It's incumbent upon all of us to make sure that we allocate the resources to defend our systems no different than governments have to allocate resources to NATO and others to protect our countries," he said.

Just last week, credit reporting firm Equifax said that a data breach could potentially affect 143 million consumers in the United States.

— CNBC's Michael Sheetz and Todd Haselton contributed to this report.