The digital landscape in finance is undergoing rapid transformation, bringing both unprecedented opportunities and risks. In response, the European Union introduced the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) in January 2023 as part of its Digital Finance Package. This regulation is not just a new set of guidelines but a legally binding framework designed to ensure that financial institutions and all related entities maintain a robust, resilient IT environment. The deadline for compliance is approaching fast—17 January 2025—and DORA is already shaping priorities across C-suites and IT departments, demanding serious commitment to resilience and data protection.
Why DORA Matters—and Why It Matters Now
DORA was not conceived as just another box-checking exercise; it’s a proactive regulatory framework designed to address the rapidly evolving cyber risks facing financial entities and the interconnected companies that support them. Unlike previous regulations that focused primarily on banks, DORA applies to a broad spectrum of organizations that are integral to the financial ecosystem in the European Economic Area (EEA) and importantly, any organization conducting business within it. This includes not only traditional financial institutions like banks and credit institutions but also payment and account information providers, electronic money and crypto-asset services, central securities depositories, investment firms, insurance providers, and even third-party ICT service providers.
In essence, if your organization plays a role in the financial ecosystem in the EEA—directly or indirectly—it will be expected to comply with DORA. The regulation mandates that all covered entities adapt their resilience plans to today’s threat landscape, as identified by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) in its 2024 Threat Landscape report. Leading threats like ransomware, malware, and social engineering attacks are of particular concern, and DORA imposes the expectation that organizations have rapid response and recovery measures “commensurate to the risk.”
DORA is an urgent call to action, and CIOs, data managers, and third-party providers are now responsible not only for their own compliance but also for protecting the interconnected financial infrastructure they support. Non-compliance can result in severe penalties, including fines of up to two percent of their total annual worldwide turnover, and public disclosure requirements that risk eroding customer and partner trust. In other words, DORA isn’t just about meeting regulatory standards; it’s about maintaining the resilience and integrity of the broader financial ecosystem.
Core Components of DORA Compliance
The heart of DORA lies in enhancing operational resilience across several focus areas, providing a blueprint for financial and related institutions to manage, withstand, and recover from potential disruptions. Here’s what entities need to prioritize:
1. Ransomware Recovery and Data Protection Ransomware has been identified as the top threat by ENISA, making rapid data recovery capabilities essential under DORA. For many financial entities and their partners, traditional data protection solutions that rely on hard disk-based backups fall short of meeting DORA’s recovery time requirements, as they can take days to restore critical data with rates < 8TB per hour. In contrast, solutions like VAST Data’s flash-based platform achieve recovery speeds of in excess of 360TB per hour for an entry level configuration, ensuring data is restored in minutes rather than hours or days. For organizations affected by DORA, this level of speed is essential—data must be recoverable quickly to minimize the operational impact of an attack.
2. Advanced Threat Detection and Response DORA also emphasizes proactive threat detection and incident response. Financial institutions, insurance companies, crypto-asset service providers, and even ICT third-party vendors must be able to detect and respond to threats like ransomware and malware before they can escalate. The VAST Data Platform integrates machine learning algorithms that can detect anomalies in real-time, allowing financial entities to stay a step ahead of attackers. This proactive approach isn’t just about compliance; it’s about safeguarding the resilience of the entire financial ecosystem.
3. Mitigating Social Engineering Attacks Social engineering, particularly phishing, poses another critical risk. To combat this, organizations must implement robust user validation, continuous access monitoring, and comprehensive audit trails. The VAST Data Platform provides multi-layered access controls, flagging suspicious access attempts and allowing quick investigation. By reinforcing user validation and access behavior monitoring, VAST Data helps financial entities and their partners meet DORA’s stringent security requirements while providing an added layer of protection against social engineering risks.
Learn more about VAST and DORA compliance in this solution brief.
A Regulatory Framework with Teeth
DORA brings more than guidelines; it brings enforcement. Each organization covered by DORA will be assigned a “Lead Overseer,” who will conduct audits and ensure compliance. This oversight means that institutions must be able to demonstrate readiness through routine testing, with regular proof of resilience in place. Non-compliance isn’t just a possibility—it’s a liability. As explained already, failing to meet DORA’s standards can mean major financial penalties, operational restrictions, and severe reputational damage.
For CIOs and data protection leaders across the affected sectors, DORA represents a shift from best-practice recommendations to enforceable requirements. The regulation’s “commensurate to the risk” approach means that high-priority threats demand equally high-priority solutions. It’s a call for financial entities, payment institutions, insurance companies, crypto-asset service providers, and other interconnected businesses to reevaluate legacy systems that might not withstand modern cyber threats.
Time to Act: Prepare for DORA Compliance
January 17th, 2025 is fast approaching, and achieving DORA compliance requires significant planning, testing, and system upgrades. While many DORA principles align with the existing NIST framework, financial entities, from banks to insurance providers, payment processors to ICT service providers, need to assess their existing technology stack and take concrete steps now. It’s clear that data protection, operational resilience, and rapid recovery must be top priorities, with high-speed recovery, proactive threat detection, and stringent access controls in place to meet regulatory standards.
As DORA’s oversight framework begins to take effect, organizations that delay may find themselves unprepared and exposed to both security risks, major regulatory penalties, and brand damage. By working with partners that understand the regulation’s requirements and adopting forward-looking vendor solutions today, entities can ensure they are not only compliant but also fortified against the evolving threat landscape and emerging regulatory frameworks.
So, with less than two months left on the clock, ask yourself: Is your organization ready to face down the new era of digital threats, or will DORA compliance leave you scrambling? With so much regulation to meet, you could be forgiven for thinking this is another regulatory box to tick—but DORA really has fangs. Are you prepared for these changes, or will you get bitten?
